In 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privatized and deregulated Britain’s bus networks everywhere outside of London. The free-market promise thesis was that raw competition would drive lower fares, better service, and expand routes. Instead, four decades of market fragmentation delivered the opposite—skyrocketing ticket prices, disappearing rural routes, and plunging ridership. Nowhere was this collapse clearer than in Greater Manchester, where bus journeys fell by nearly half despite dozens of competing private operators providing service.
Enter Andy Burnham. As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham accomplished what once seemed politically impossible: after an arduous process of getting national legislation passed and fighting off multiple lawsuits, he reclaimed municipal control and launched the Bee Network—a unified, affordable, public-first transit overhaul. The results were immediate and striking. By capping fares, syncing schedules, and prioritizing public benefit, Burnham proved that effective public transit is the ultimate engine for regional economic growth and social mobility.
That local victory resonated far beyond Manchester—catapulting Burnham all the way to 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister.
In the following excerpts from his interview on our Modeshift podcast, Burnham breaks down how he pulled off Manchester's transit revolution, why affordable mobility is a prerequisite for economic success, and why his advice to regional leaders everywhere boils down to two words: "Do it."
If you’d prefer to listen to the full podcast episode, which includes Burnham discussing why he entered politics, the national tragedy that shaped his career, and much more on transit, click here.
Mayor Burnham: A low, fare, high usage public transport system, I believe is the foundation of an entrepreneurial, successful city region. … It's the foundation for a productive economy, and particularly one in which people on the lowest incomes can access the best opportunities. And the more that you make that transport really, truly affordable every day, you're both helping people to connect to opportunity, but also with the cost of living. It allows more money to be spent in the real economy.
We are the fastest growing city region in the UK and have been for some time. And I think it is because of our transport system that people are looking towards. Here as a young person, you can live here without a car relatively easily, more easily than you could in Leeds or Newcastle or Birmingham.
Mayor Burnham: Well, the bee is the city symbol, and that goes back to those cotton workers. The bee symbolizes the workers pulling together, it's the symbol of an industrial city. And by putting them on the side of the buses, it was a big statement of saying, you are back in control. The people are back in control of this public transport system. So we were very proud of that fact.
But that's not enough, is it? You've got to say, well, you've got public control, so where's the public benefit? And I've taken it upon myself to show to the public here that public control can lead to substantial public benefit. So we introduced a two pound fare just in advance, actually, of taking control, but it's still in place today, and it will be in place for the rest of 2026.
I made that fare a hopper affair like London. You tap on a bus here, you pay two pounds, but then you can go on as many buses as you like for the next hour. … We had a situation, or we still do, in places where there was a restriction on older and disabled people's concessionary passes. It was a 9:30 rule [meaning older and disabled passengers were legally barred from using their free concessionary bus passes before 9:30 AM on weekdays]. It was introduced some years ago to save money because the commercial operators said, oh, well, we don't want older disabled people crowding buses in the peak period. It was a pretty blunt and crude argument they made. But anyway, with public control, we've said, do you know what? We're gonna get rid of that, let people travel whenever they want to travel.
Mayor Burnham: I remember a young lad came up to me not long after I'd brought it in. He said, Oh, Andy, that is the best thing that anyone's ever done for me. You know, you wouldn't believe how much it's changed my life. I said, well, what, what do you mean? Well, I, I've actually now visited the other nine boroughs of Greater Manchester, and it was, I felt quite sad when he said it, but he was saying it with absolute joy. That in a nutshell tells you what a poor overpriced public transport system does to people from the lowest income backgrounds. It massively constrains their horizons and the fact that he'd got on a safari around the rest of the place where he lived. Well, it still makes me happy to relay that anecdote.
Mayor Burnham: So the advice I give them, 'cause they have all asked me, shall I go down the same path, is “do it.” And the quicker you do it, the quicker you will benefit from a financial point of view, but also a political point of view.
There's few policies that you can introduce that get more noticed than changing the color of every bus on every street and dropping the fares. This gets noticed a lot in every part of the place that you're responsible for. It does something meaningful about one of the biggest challenges that we face here in the UK, and I know you face in the US, which is the cost of living. … So I do say to them, just get on the path and get on it as quick as you can. And yeah, there's some upfront cost in terms of the transition, but just swallow it and get on with it.
Liverpool are going next. Liverpool will start this same process later this year. I think Leeds will be the one after that. Sheffield and then Newcastle. What we’re going to see is one big city region after another go in this same path. That very much will be the direction of travel in the rest of this decade across the UK. I don't have any doubts in my mind that this was the right thing to do.