Thousands reported boarding Bee Network night buses

A trial of night buses on Greater Manchester’s Bee Network is seeing thousands board the nocturnal services.

The services on the V1 and 36 routes connecting Manchester with Leigh and Bolton via Salford run at least every hour both ways, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Between 1 September and 28 September, around 7,000 trips were made across the new, additional hourly services which run between midnight and 6.30am on the V1, and 11.45pm and 6.55am on the 36. These journeys account for 14% of overnight trips on both routes, with Friday and Saturday nights proving the most popular among passengers.

The scheme is also having a positive impact on the number of people using later-running services, with a total of 53,413 travelling on both new and existing night buses between 10pm and 7am. In addition, the weekly average number of passengers boarding the V1 and 36 between 10pm and 7am has grown by 4% on the former and 6% on the latter.

The V1 and 36 serve areas which were among the first to be taken over by the franchised Bee Network in September 2023. The final phase of bus franchising launches in the south of Greater Manchester on 5 January 2025.

Night buses use the same capped bus fares first introduced in 2022 to provide a simplified ticket offer consistent across all bus services in Greater Manchester.

“Providing late-night bus services remains a key part of our vision for the Bee Network” – Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “Before we launched this pilot, we knew that people had been crying out for better public transport at night and into the early mornings, so I am really encouraged to see so many people are making use of our night buses.

“Providing late-night bus services remains a key part of our vision for the Bee Network, and these encouraging figures show that the demand is there for safer, reliable and more affordable public transport at these times of the evening.

“The far-ranging benefits of these services are already being felt, whether it’s helping people getting home from a night out and boosting our night-time economy, or creating essential new connections for the people working within this sector to get to and from their place of work.

“This pilot is crucial in allowing us to gather the insight we need to deliver on our aspirations for more Bee Network night buses, while also making the case for extra funding to provide better services for the people and businesses in Greater Manchester.”

“With passenger numbers increasing week by week, it’s clear that these services are already providing vital support to the night-time economy” – Vernon Everitt, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester

Vernon Everitt, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester, said: “Trialling these two night bus services is allowing us to open up more transport options for people working in our night-time economy, which in turn enables further economic growth and higher productivity for our growing region.

“With passenger numbers increasing week by week, it’s clear that these services are already providing vital support to the night-time economy and helping people get to and from work around the clock.”

As part of the pilot scheme, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is partnering with Strut Safe, a volunteer-operated support line which offers people a friendly voice to keep them company when walking between a bus and their front door.

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