Mayor Andy Burnham announces decision to press ahead with franchising system
Bus services in Greater Manchester will be brought under public control, with one integrated service to replace the dozens of private operations in a “broken market”, the city’s mayor, Andy Burnham, has announced.
The decision to press ahead with a franchising system would mean more joined up and affordable travel, accountable to the public, Burnham said, in what would be the first reverse of the deregulation of the bus industry by the Thatcher government in the 1980s.
