Greater Manchester Map

Bringing buses under local control will be the biggest change to Greater Manchester’s buses since de-regulation in 1986.

Because of the size of the bus network, and the scale of change, improvements will be made in phases from September 2023 through to January 2025.

  • Phase one: includes bus services running within and from the north west of Greater Manchester. This includes the Bolton and Wigan Council areas as well bus services running through parts of Salford and Manchester from the west of Greater Manchester. First services will operate here from 2023.
  • Phase two: includes bus services running within and from the north east of Greater Manchester. This includes the Bury, Rochdale and Oldham areas as well as the north of Manchester City Council area. First services will operate here from 2024.
  • Phase three: includes some bus services crossing over from the north east of Greater Manchester as well as services running in the south of Greater Manchester – the south of the Manchester City Council area, Stockport, Trafford, Tameside and the rest of Salford. First services will operate here from 2025.

We’re going as fast as we can to improve your services. But it takes time to prepare the contacts, to go out to tender, and for contracted bus operators to prepare.

When franchising is complete in January 2025, services will run as one, whole network.