Greater Manchester's first new yellow buses hit streets

The first of Greater Manchester's new yellow buses has hit the region's roads six months before the official launch of locally-controlled services.

From September, the region will be the first area outside London to have a regulated bus system since the 1980s.

The new Bee Network system will give control over fares and routes and allow poor performing operators to be fined.

Services will start in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Bury and Salford with the whole area changing over by 2025.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that eventually, all Greater Manchester's buses will be of the same standard with audio-visual announcements and a more accessible layout for disabled passengers.

Bus operators have now begun branding their buses in yellow with the first one hitting the streets of Bolton earlier.

The change comes in the week that Greater Manchester signed a deal with the government which will allow local train services to be integrated into the new network.

The deal means that from 2030, passengers will be able to tap-in and tap-out when using some rail services, as well as on buses and the region's Metrolink trams.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the changes would make life easier for passengers, but would take time to complete.

"We're moving from a very different system, which has got multiple buses, colours, you name it, on the streets," he said.

"To move from that to a standardised public transport system can't be done in a matter of weeks [or] months, it does take a few years to get there."

However, he said the change would soon "come thick and fast", as there were "hundreds of buses on orders for Greater Manchester, many of them zero emission buses".

"When we get to September, the majority of the buses on the road serving Wigan and Bolton will be either new buses or modern buses that are being rebranded," he said.

"The majority of the fleet will look to the right standard on day one."

The new yellow buses will initially also have the names of the operators on them, but that information will be removed from 24 September.

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