Greater Manchester\u2019s buses may have been an egregious example. But the road taken by Burnham as mayor could now be followed nationwide.<\/p>\n
The railway is rapidly returning to state ownership<\/a>, with most passenger train services joining Network Rail under a new Great British Railways (GBR) by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n .<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, the move to public control of buses via franchising is being rolled out across much of the north: pioneered by Burnham under mayoral rights since extended by Labour government to all councils nationwide.<\/p>\n The yellow Bee Network<\/a> pin, prominently affixed to Burnham\u2019s lapel on Monday at his first speech as PM-in-waiting<\/a>, is as proud a service medal as any metro mayor can muster.<\/p>\n \u201cWe put the bee on the side of the buses to denote that public control. And now we\u2019re acting visibly, tangibly in the interests of our residents,\u201d he told the Guardian in an interview shortly before the Makerfield byelection was called.<\/p>\n If his political philosophy of \u201cManchesterism\u201d<\/a> has changed anything to date, it is this: an essential service reshaped to deliver under elected local officials for the common good. And a simple tenet that helps connects Burnham to northern voters \u2013 if it\u2019s good enough for London<\/a>, it\u2019s good enough for us.<\/p>\n Burnham said he put bees on Bee Network buses to denote public control. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA<\/p>\n The Bee Network, combining Greater Manchester\u2019s newly franchised bus routes with the Metrolink tram system and eventually urban rail services, has consciously, stubbornly emulated a system only seen in the UK under Transport<\/a> for London.<\/p>\n Burnham, like Sadiq Khan again in the capital, has staked a lot on keeping bus fares low \u2013 instigating a \u00a32 single bus fare before and after the government did so nationwide<\/a>, and providing free or discounted travel for young people in further education.<\/p>\n Mancunians have also benefited similarly from fare capping, \u201chopper\u201d fares \u2013 a single fare if using more than one bus in an hour \u2013 contactless payments and night buses, all of which have helped drive up patronage by 24% over three years to 178m bus journeys in 2026.<\/p>\n TfL\u2019s patronage is enough to cover the cost of operations without large public subsidy \u2013 fares pulling in \u00a35.5bn, road charges \u00a31.6bn and business rates \u00a32.2bn \u2013 but it still relies on central government grants for capital investment, and its buses are cross-subsidised by Tube income.<\/p>\n Transport for Greater Manchester can only get so far. Fare revenue has continued to rise but funds only half the operation, \u00a388m coming from trams and \u00a3269m from buses in 2025-26 \u2013 slightly less than the combined local and central government funding of \u00a3376m.<\/p>\n Buying back bus depots that once belonged to the city \u201cstuck in my throat\u201d, said Burnham, part of transition costs of \u00a3135m before launch in 2023. However, he said re-regulated services cost one-third less per kilometre under the Bee Network than the old regime, a \u201cwild west\u201d of buses plying Manchester\u2019s streets<\/a> but only cherrypicking the lucrative routes. Councils had to pay private companies to run some services and to cover discounted travel for old and young.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had you over a barrel,\u201d Burnham said. \u201cI had to pay in the old world for every time a 16-year-old or 70-year-old used that bus pass \u2013 they got that fee. Now we\u2019re just forgoing revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bee Network bus still outsources the running of the buses to the big bus firms of old. Photograph: James Speakman\/PA<\/p>\n For all the symbolism, the Bee Network still outsources the running of the buses to the big bus firms of old. They now do so with the obligation to run the services that Manchester dictates, with unified branding and fares.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cIt has cost quite a lot in subsidy, but it could have gone wrong and it\u2019s gone right,\u201d said Prof Tony Travers, a local government expert at London School of Economics. \u201cIt\u2019s a good system. When I go to Manchester now I use the tram, in the way I\u2019d use the M\u00e9tro in Paris \u2013 and that\u2019s not true elsewhere in Britain. It\u2019s made significant strides in creating the kind of integrated transport other European cities have.\u201d<\/p>\n One step that remained barred by the Tories when Burnham opted for franchising<\/a> was the ability to set up a fully publicly owned, municipal bus company, since enabled by Labour legislation last year.<\/p>\n Rail renationalisation goes further \u2013 but it was never far away. After the brief, disastrous Railtrack tenure at the start of privatisation in the 1990s, state-owned Network Rail has run the tracks since 2002. Problems with the franchising system saw a series of contracts axed<\/a> from Virgin Trains East Coast to Northern, before Covid collapsed them all.<\/p>\n That meant numerous train operations were publicly owned, and the rest tightly controlled by the Department for Transport, long before Labour came to power with a promise to renationalise. The rest will follow next year, including totemic brands such as Avanti West Coast, whose intercity operations will be ever more intensely scrutinised with a No 10 split between London and the north<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the core aims of replacing a broken franchising system, bringing the management of the track and trains together, and overhauling ticketing and fares, GBR has been a cross-party pursuit.<\/p>\n Most passenger train services will join Network Rail under Great British Railways by the end of 2027. Photograph: Maureen McLean\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/500.jpg\")
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