Travel & Tourism
Andy Burnham urges Greater Manchester residents to ‘switch to the Bee Network’ in 2025
The Mayor wants everyone to 'leave the car at home'.
Emily Sergeant -
2nd January 2025 
Andy Burnham is urging Greater Manchester residents to ‘switch to the Bee Network’ in 2025.
With the new year now here, the Greater Manchester Mayor has reflected back on the past 12 months, and has set some goals and intentions for 2025 – which he expects to be a “busy” year full of change and historic milestones for the region.
2025 is, of course, set to start off strong, beginning with the introduction of Bee Network buses to the southern part of Greater Manchester from 5 January.
“Four decades of deregulation will be over,” Mr Burnham declared. “We will finally be back in charge of our entire bus network.”
One week today, GM will make the biggest change yet to our buses – completing re-regulation on time and on budget.
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) December 29, 2024
This flurry of delivery should set the tone for the rest of 2025.
Read my New Year message👇🏻https://t.co/4GlYbN4QrO
The Mayor says that completing this first phase “on time and on budget” is a “huge achievement” for the region, and he hopes this means that 2025 can “begin on a much-needed optimistic note” – adding that in an era where it has felt like “most things are broken or going backwards”, Greater Manchester transport has “bucked the trend”.
He called the Bee Network “the most visible piece of successful public service delivery in recent times”, and said its popularity “proves things can indeed be fixed, moved forward, and made to work better.”
While he conceded that there is likely to be “a bumpy few days” next week until things settle down, Mr Burnham insists he is “confident” that passengers using Bee Network services in the southern half of the region “will soon see a difference”.
This is why he is urging everyone to make full use of it and “leave the car at home”.
Addressing Greater Manchester residents directly as the new year begins, Andy Burnham said: “I hope to ask you to make a New Year’s resolution – switch to the Bee Network in 2025 and to leave the car at home.
“The more that people do this, the longer we will be able to keep our £2 cap in place, hold fares as low as possible, and make the whole transport system flow better for everyone.
“For many years now, Greater Manchester has been growing faster than the UK economy, and our skyline tells the story of that change. But, as with any global city of our stature, congestion is a constant challenge and public transport has to become the priority way of getting around.”
Looking ahead to the highly-anticipated introduction of the London-style transport system in March, Mr Burnham continued: “If people are to buy into [using the Bee Network over a car], I know we have to work even harder to make it feel safer, more reliable and convenient to use. So, on 23 March, Greater Manchester will bring in a London-style tap-in, tap-out payment system, across trams and buses, with a daily cap on what people can spend.
“I hope this flurry of delivery sets a good tone for the rest of 2025.”
Mr Burnham says Greater Manchester is going into the new year “with a spring in our step and a can-do spirit” that he hopes becomes “infectious” to the rest of the UK.
Read more:
- Andy Burnham declares 2025 as Manchester’s year for ‘restoring local control’
- Date set for Manchester’s move to London-style ‘tap in, tap out’ public transport system
- Greater Manchester survives Government bus fare cap scrap
“If the local control achieved with our buses starts to bring similar benefits to housing and skills, then perhaps the country can draw a line under these dysfunctional recent times and start to look to the future with more confidence and optimism,” he concluded.
Featured Image – TfGM
