The wheels on the bus
When regulation is a good thing
“we need to know why, if deregulation is such a brilliant idea, it is not being applied to London.”
Gwyneth Dunwoody - MP for Crewe and Nantwich, House of Commons, 1 April 1985.
One of the biggest policy failures of the past 50 years is the deregulation of England’s buses outside London, imposed by the Transport Act 1985.
Following the passage of this law, bus services were privatised with very limited scope for local authority coordination or involvement.
Nothing illustrates the failure of this policy better than the following chart on bus usage produced by the Financial Times.
Source: John Burn-Murdoch / Financial Times
And as the quote at the beginning shows, this was foreseen at the time.
So it is interesting that one of the first major acts that many newly elected mayors are making is to reverse this. They are using powers from the Bus Services Act 2017, which allowed mayors to take over the running of their buses again - something only London has been allowed to do since the passage of the 1985 Act.
The North is leading the way in using these new powers, which will be accelerated by the new Bus Services Bill going through Parliament.1
As of March 2025, the Bee Network in Greater Manchester has integrated ticketing and fare caps across buses and trams. This is a huge step forward compared to how things worked just two years ago, as the first tranche of buses came under public control.
Back then, there were numerous operators each with their individual ticket structures. Let alone integration with the tram. This is not how a modern public transport system in a major urban area should work.
Now 577 routes and 1,600 buses are franchised by Greater Manchester. This means that local leaders can decide on the routes, fares and branding and then contract these with private operators.
For example, a decision has already been taken to restore a bus link between Wigan and Horwich Parkway that had been lost. And the frequency on another service from Wigan to the Trafford Centre has been increased. Such decisions enable people to get to jobs, education, leisure, shopping and other opportunities in a way they could not before.
Taking advantage of this, I recently took a bus from the city centre to visit the Manchester Museum. Previously, I would have needed to worry about which bus operator to get on for a return journey and in the 2 hours we had to make the trip it might have been difficult. But this time it was seamless. Bus franchising isn’t some revolutionary technology, but it was effectively banned by central government for decades!
As with any big change like this, it will take a while for us to understand the impact and there may also be initial issues in the transition. But the early results are encouraging. Punctuality has improved. New services and an increased frequency on some routes has been brought in.
GM’s own data suggests a 14% increase in usage in the first areas to be franchised back in 2023.2 Costs are currently covered mostly by passengers (47%) and GM residents (29%), with central government grants making up 18% of income - a proportion that will hopefully fall over time.
The Bee Network in Manchester is now a very visible sign of progress too. It is hard to visit anywhere in or around the area without seeing the distinctive yellow buses or a yellow tram.
And there are exciting plans to expand this concept beyond Greater Manchester.
Liverpool City Region has also taken the decision to franchise. This will be rolled out over 12 months from September 2026 starting with St Helens and Wirral.
In West Yorkshire, the mayor has announced the ‘Weaver Network’ (weaving people together and alluding to textiles history!) which will follow a similar path. The detail below shows the latest plans for expansion starting in 2027 with Kirklees, Heavy Woollen and parts of Leeds.
Source: West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
South Yorkshire has also taken the decision to franchise, the North East is currently in the process of assessing the franchising options and York and North Yorkshire is taking part in a pilot to understand how this model can be applied in more rural areas.
On the other hand, Tees Valley has ruled out franchising - but if it is successful elsewhere then I wonder whether the mayor’s assessment of the scheme as ‘unworkable’ will change.
As far as I can tell, Hull and East Yorkshire haven’t made a decision one way or the other yet. Luke Campbell suggested in his election campaign that he admired the approach Andy Burnham had taken and wanted to “control the fares, control the bus routes and the quality of service.” This would imply that he will go for franchising at some point if he’s going to meet this commitment.
The non-mayoral areas of Cumbria, Cheshire & Warrington and Lancashire also have access to bus franchising powers following recent reforms introduced by the government, though I can’t find any indication that they are taking it forward yet.3
With this variation between areas we will be able to see what works for different places. But my first impression of the franchising model is very positive. We’ve seen it work in London and now we’re starting to see it work in Greater Manchester.
With most areas in the North pursuing bus franchising, we should hope to see a big improvement in services soon. A topic I am sure I will come back to in future.
The government has already passed a statutory instrument to allow all areas to franchise their buses, something previously limited to mayoral areas under the 2017 Act. The new Bill looks to speed up the process. For example, it will give local transport authorities the power to decide on bus franchising and grant making for themselves, reducing the need for Secretary of State approval.
Over the coming months, data on bus usage to April 2025 will become available, which will allow us to compare across areas.
Though Cheshire West and Chester are taking part in the same bus franchising pilot for more rural areas as York and North Yorkshire.
Keep preaching. The 1985 Transport Act is, along with RTB, one of the most destructive pieces of legislation introduced by the Thatcher government. Ironically, it was Theresa May rather than New Labour that introduced the legislation to restore the possibility of franchising outside London. However, it is worth remembering Thatcher’s objectives with the ‘85 Act: to reduce the power of local government and trade unions, and to save money. The latter remains the challenge for franchised services. London buses are subsidised by the tube network and where are the equivalent sources of revenue elsewhere in England? You can only have a cheap and comprehensive network (which I assume is the objective) with ongoing revenue support. Finding the money for that support will be the challenge for the Bee Network and every other authority that reintroduces franchising.
Another part of Burnham’s deft footwork is to use bus franchising to side step a politically contentious CAZ for GM through electrification and mode share shift. You can already see him suggesting that the £2 fare cap can be maintained if they can continue to grow passenger volume, and that means starting to re-design the road network to drive more bus priority, which in turn de-prioritises cars, add a bit of active travel in the mix, and he’ll gradually squeeze out cars without a backlash. Let’s see,