Consultations and engagement

Have your say and get involved

We run the Bee Network for you. Your feedback is important to us as part of understanding what you need from the Bee Network.

Share your views and get involved in decisions about transport in Greater Manchester.

Current opportunities

Please see our live engagement and consultations opportunities below.

Details about how you can share your views through alternative formats are available under each opportunity.

If you need to request a different format or more support, including interpreting services, please get in touch with us.

We are currently reviewing our policies for the carriage of mobility scooters on Bee Network buses and Metrolink.

The review will incorporate the use/ need of permits, training method, permit renewals, and the process for visitors from outside Greater Manchester.

We will be undertaking targeted engagement with operators and equality groups in Summer/Autumn 2025.

Please contact engagement@tfgm.com for more information.

About Network Reviews

We’re carrying out a series of Network Reviews to better understand bus services across the city-region so that we can better plan our bus network.

Every review will be evidence-based, using all the information available to us, including community feedback.

We’re asking local Bee Network Committees, communities, businesses, and elected members to help us understand the transport needs of their area.

Have your say

You can give your views through our online survey.

You can request an alternative format by emailing network.reviews@tfgm.com or by calling the contact centre on 0161 244 1000.

We will also be speaking with local transport committees and forums, communities, businesses and elected members.

More information about Network Reviews, including FAQs.

We asked, you said, we're doing

Your feedback makes a big difference to the future of transport in Greater Manchester.

Find out what’s happening because of your feedback

Learn more about

To find out more about the following, please click on the drop-down arrows.

We're Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), and we are the local government body responsible for transport in Greater Manchester.

We’re working with the Mayor of Greater Manchester, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the ten Greater Manchester local authorities to deliver the Bee Network – a world class, joined up transport network under local control.

Find out more about who we are.

Local decision-making power and accountability is at the heart of the Bee Network. The Bee Network Committee watch over and make decisions about the Bee Network.

The Committee is chaired by the Mayor of Greater Manchester and has one councillor from each of the 10 Greater Manchester local authorities. Other councillors are also chosen by the Mayor to sit on the committee for political balance.

So your local authority councillors will be able to represent you. The Committee will be involved in regular Bee Network reviews, engagement and consultations.

Buses are now under local control in Greater Manchester.

Local control means that decisions about Bee Network bus services are made by the local politicians you elect, based on the recommendations made by us.

Future consultations on recommended changes to the Bee Network will be available here for you to have your say.

Where a petition is sent in response to a consultation we’re running, it will be noted separately as part of the summary report.
Petitions about other TfGM decisions or responsibilities will be considered and receive a response within 10 working days.
Petitions about decisions of the Bee Network Committee, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), or the Greater Manchester Mayor will be referred to the GMCA for consideration and response.
Similarly, petitions about local authority decisions or responsibilities, such as the management of local highways, will be referred to the relevant local authority.

Some of your council tax pays for us. We also get money from government grants and bid for other funding where we can. The money you spend on travelling on the Bee Network is put back in to pay towards its running costs.

We want to hear from you so we can understand what our customers, partners and local communities need from the Bee Network.

What do we mean by engagement and consultation?

Engagement and consultation are ways you can share your views on key transport issues; however, there are some important differences.

Engagement

Engagement is a more informal, ongoing process that helps us to learn, share information and gather feedback. Sometimes our engagement will be planned in a targeted way with specific representative groups. This will depend on what we’re gathering feedback on and who it impacts.

Consultation

Consultation is a formal process. As a public body our decisions can be subject to statutory or common law duties that require us to consult first. For example, an important policy change or where proposals are likely to affect people with protected characteristics under the equality act. We make sure our consultations are fair and effective, and that they meet public law principles.

We also know it’s important to respond to questions and provide updates, so sometimes we will focus on information sharing rather than gathering feedback through engagement or consultation.

Our promise to you

We run the Bee Network for you. We want to make sure that you have the opportunity to have your say and to be involved if you want to.

You have a right to influence plans and decisions that are made on your behalf, which is why we promise that we will:

Plan our engagement and consultation activity with the people impacted at its heart
Be inclusive and accessible by:
- Making information as simple and jargon-free as possible, providing it in alternative formats and making it screen reader friendly
- Using a range of methods to gather feedback
- Only holding events in accessible venues
- Making sure we include people who want to be involved, and that everyone has a real opportunity to tell us what they think
Make sure we tell you about opportunities to have your say
Co-ordinate engagement and consultation so that you are not asked the same questions again and again
Be clear about whether we’re consulting or engaging on and what can be changed, and if it can't, why not. We will also feed back to you what has been said and what we are going to do as a result

We work in partnership with lots of groups which represent the needs and interests of the local communities, organisations and sectors that rely on the Bee Network.

Sometimes that’s through formal arrangements. But we also build relationships with groups across Greater Manchester and beyond to influence a Bee Network for Greater Manchester, by Greater Manchester.

If you represent a group and are interested in working with us, please get in touch by email at engagement@tfgm.com.

See which groups we work with.

As the move to the Bee Network continues, you can stay up to date up with all the latest changes, so you’ll know when more Bee Network benefits are available.

We work with the Mayor of Greater Manchester, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the ten local authorities to help deliver the vision to make Greater Manchester one of the best places in the world to grow up, get on and grow old.

Follow the links below to have your say on other plans for Greater Manchester and your local area:

Get in touch

We’re here to help and will use all types of your feedback to shape the Bee Network.

You can get in touch with us by contact form, email or phone.

If you get in touch by phone, you can request LanguageLine Solutions. LanguageLine offer a telephone interpreting service for customers whose first language is not English.

You can also give feedback by rating your journey.

Get in touch with us

Your privacy

Learn more about how we use your information.