Extra £2m to boost Manchester bus capacity

Greater Manchester has secured over £2m in government funding to boost capacity on its bus network at peak times and help children get back to school safely.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has worked with operators to run around 300 additional bus journeys each weekday across the region. Around 150 duplicate journeys will run in the morning, and a further 150 in the afternoon, to support journeys to and from school and free-up capacity on the commercial bus network for other passengers. Duplicate buses exclusively for school and college students will run behind the original scheduled service at set times, with the usual route number starting in ‘S’ to show they are school services. They are being introduced on routes where pre-lockdown passenger data has shown the highest number of schoolchildren travelling and where bus seats are expected to be in high demand as a result.

Duplicate journeys, which run from the beginning of the new school year, will be in place until the autumn half-term holiday, subject to demand.