24-hour services and flat £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares included in new Greater Manchester bus plans
A new five-year plan being discussed tomorrow iincludes new £1.50 'hopper' fares, 70 new 10-minute service routes, and more evening and Sunday services.
The mayor and council bosses have submitted new plans to Westminster to help make bus travel cheaper for thousands of people in Greater Manchester.
The £1 billion bid for cheaper fares sees a long-term goal to overhaul bus travel in the region take another step forward after the mayor confirmed plans to bring buses back into public control.
The five-year plan, due to be discussed by leaders on Friday morning, features new £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares, 70 new 10-minute service routes, 2,000 more accessible bus stops and more evening and Sunday services – not to mention redesigned and rebuilt transport interchanges.
This would mean be there would be 70 new bus routes, with regular ten-minute services making it much easier to just turn up and go – rather than having to hang around in the bus station for half an hour (or longer) waiting for your next ride.
The bid also promises to include 20 new outes with ‘24 hour services’ and ‘three or four’ express bus routes for places not served by the Metrolink, although it is not clear as to where specifically these will be.
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Whilst there is currently no list of where these high-frequency services would run, there is a map to gie some indication – showing them spreading throughout the region.
Andy Burnham has previously made a lot of noise about bringing a London-style travel network to Manchester. These new plans are the first step in that direction.
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By simplifying the range of different bus fairs across Greater Manchester into flat £1.50 rates that can be used to hop on and off services, daily fares for travellers across the region will be reduced by around 25%.
Plans to make travel cheaper and simple across the ten boroughs also include ‘attractively priced one day and one-week travelcards’ as well as the new £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares.
But of course, improvement costs money – hence why the mayor and council bosses have submitted their bid to the government’s ‘Bus Services Improvement Plan’ fund.
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According to the calculations made in the report, a rising subsidy of between £10m and £60m (by 2030) would be required from central government in order to keep fares at these cheap levels for passengers – notwithstanding dropping passenger levels caused by Covid.
Whilst suggesting a range of different bus corridors, for the fastest routes inspiration has been drawn from the Leigh Guided Busway.
Plans would involve the segregation of large swathes of highway, and come as part of a longer-term solution.
In the short term, the authority also wants to upgrade eight current key routes – notably Salford Crescent to Media City, Wigan to Bolton, Rochdale-Oldham-Ashton, Bury Rochdale and Ashton-Stockport -adding more accessible bus stops, as well as more signs, gates and signal priorities.
Routes between Altrincham to Carrington and Sale West to Broadheath are also included in the upgrade plans.
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There is also plans to make the majority of the bus fleet electric, with two-thirds of buses in the plans would be electric, whilst the rest would be remodelled existing vehicles in the network.
Council bosses will discuss the plans on Friday 29, October.
Feature image – Commons Wikimedia
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Benjamin Mendy wins legal case against Manchester City over unpaid wages
Danny Jones
Ex-Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy has officially won the legal case against his former employers over unpaid wages.
The French defender was suspended from Man City without pay in September 2021 after being charged with six counts of rape and one instance of sexual assault before ultimately leaving the club last June.
Despite multiple allegations and the high-profile case going to trial in August 2022, Mendy was eventually cleared of all counts in July 2023 and has been demanding he receive his ‘lost’ finances earned at the Etihad ever since.
Mendy took legal action against City last November and now, nearly a full year on, the 30-year-old fullback has won his claim against them and is expected to receive most of the outstanding wages accumulated while he was in custody and on bail, as he was still unable to play due to FA sanctions.
As detailed in an official judgement summary, “The result of this decision is that Mr Mendy will be entitled to receive the majority of his unpaid salary, although not all of it.”
BREAKING: Benjamin Mendy has been successful in his employment claim against Manchester City 🚨
In her judgement, published on November 6, Judge Joanne Dunlop's concluded that Manchester City were not entitled to withhold Mendy's pay while he was not in custody. pic.twitter.com/dRWmfHpfgO
The former Premier League star initially entered into an employment tribunal to claim around £11 million in compensation for the wages he missed out on during the period between his suspension in September 2021 and City letting him go in the summer of 2023.
Mendy’s wages were worth around £500,000 a month after joining the Manchester club back in 2017 for a then-world-record fee for a defender, £52m. While he was unsuccessful in claiming all unpaid wages back, City are expected to hand over approximately £8.5m.
Writing on social media, the Frenchman welcomed the decision which found that the club had “unlawfully made deductions from my wages for a total period of 16 months and 23 days.”
Mendy urged the club to do the “honourable thing” and pay the outstanding wages promptly, along with other amounts included in his contract, so as to “finally put this difficult part of my life behind me.”
He went on to conclude the statement by thanking family, agent and legal team for their support and while it’s unclear how soon Man City will be forced to cough up the sum, the footballer will be playing this weekend as usual. You can read his full statement down below:
The club themselves are yet to respond to the decision but will be required to pay out the number within a certain period by law. Mendy has been back playing football in his home country at Ligue 2 club, FC Lorient, who he signed for just days after being acquitted even despite huge backlash.
Meanwhile, their well-publicised case against UEFA and the outstanding 115+ charges regarding FFP and PSR has now begun but isn’t expected to be settled for some time.
Featured Images — Soccer.ru (via Wikimedia Commons)/The Manc Group
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Three arrested after Bonfire Night chaos sees fireworks thrown at Manchester police and fire fighters
Emily Sergeant
Three males have been arrested after fireworks were thrown at police officers and fire fighters in Manchester last night.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said officers were called out and quickly responded to reports of a large group of young people causing disorder and damage by lighting a fire on waste ground and throwing fireworks and missiles on Vine Street in Gorton just after 4:15pm on Bonfire Night yesterday (5 November).
Upon attending, fireworks were aimed at police officers and also colleagues from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS), but thankfully, no injuries were sustained.
An investigation was immediately launched following shocking incident, GMP confirmed – with three males, aged between 16 and 18, all arrested on suspicion of causing violent disorder.
#ARREST | Last night we arrested three teenagers to stop further disorder in #Gorton and our enquiries are ongoing.
When attending, fireworks were aimed at our officers and also colleagues from the fire service. Thankfully no injuries were sustained.
They remain in custody for questioning at this time, with further arrests expected to follow.
The police are now appealing to the public for information, with Superintendent Richard McNamara, of GMP’s City of Manchester North District, saying: “It is shocking that we are seeing fireworks being used as a weapon towards emergency services as they try and keep our communities safe.”
He continued: “We know incidents like this will rightly cause concern to members of the local community and those people who enjoyed Bonfire Night safely.
“But I want to reassure the public that this is an isolated incident, which was dealt with very quickly by local neighbourhood officers with assistance from officers from our Specialist Operations branch, who brought the incident to a safe conclusion.
“We have also worked alongside our partners in the area throughout the evening by deploying joint patrols with youth services and colleagues in the fire service.”
Superintendent McNamara added that investigating officers are “pursuing several lines of enquiry that will ensure that all those responsible are brought to justice”.
Anyone with any information is asked to come forward and speak to GMP by contacting 101, quoting incident number 2294 of 5/11/24, or details can instead be passed anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.