More night bus routes to be rolled out across Greater Manchester

More night buses are to be trialled across the Bee Network after parts of it were taken back under local control.

A pilot of the late night services will run across Bolton and Wigan later this year, transport bosses say.

Bolton and Wigan are among the first to see the buses return to local control as well as parts of Bury and Salford. Some night buses already run to parts of South Manchester and surrounding areas.

Northern parts of Manchester including Rochdale and Oldham are to return to public control from March. All buses in the city-region are expected to be publicly controlled under the Bee Network by 2025.

Alex Cropper from Transport for Greater Manchester told the BBC returning buses to public control from September last year gave ‘much more scope to explore options’. 

Mr Cropper said transport is ‘important to workers and employers in the night time economy, and there was ‘a strong desire to enhance what is currently available’.

He added that TfGM worked alongside Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham on the proposals and they would be ‘brought forward to a future Bee Network Committee’.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) Night Time Economy Advisor to Mr Burnham, Sacha Lord, said: “Greater Manchester Night Buses are coming….

“Great news, not just for customers, but more importantly for staff. Finally staff will have access to public transport. A huge benefit of @AndyBurnhamGM taking buses back under public control.”

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