Andy Burnham has released more details on a wave of new bus announcements covering tickets and night services.

The mayor has committed to temporarily removing a rule for disabled and OAP bus pass holders temporarily, cut the cost of student travel, and introduce three new night bus services.

He posted on X on Thursday (July 10): "In August, we will trial the removal of the 9.30am restriction on the older people's and disabled people's bus passes.

"We can't promise it will be permanent. But we hope it will help people over the summer and will then assess the results to see what is possible."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands the trial will take place for August only, and then be reviewed.

The mayor went on: "To help all our young people get on in life, we are introducing a new half-price monthly bus pass for 18 to 21 year-olds from September. We will not let anyone growing up in Greater Manchester lose out on life chances due to the cost of travel."

That means it will cost £40 for a month's Bee Network bus travel, or £1.43 per day, making it cheaper for students commuting to and from uni than it did with the Magic Bus, which cost £1 for a single.

"Finally," Mr Burnham added, "to help people who work into the early hours, or start early shifts, we are expanding the night bus pilot to Prestwich, Bury, Middleton and Rochdale later this year."

It's now been confirmed the services included in the expansion will include the 135, from Manchester city centre to Bury via Prestwich, and the 17 and 17a, from Shudehill to Rochdale and Norden, the LDRS understands. Both will run on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

The mayor made a series of major Bee Network bus announcements as he launched a new Greater Manchester Strategy on Wednesday (July 9). While the document covers health, housing, regeneration and benefits policies, the most eye-catching programme is the beginning of early planning work to tunnel underneath Manchester city centre for trains and trams.

Mr Burnham said he was 'deadly serious' about the plan, adding he has instructed Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) 'to start preparing the original, first concept' for the project, and 'open the earliest conversation with the government' on how to pay for the subterranean proposals.

~

Free from clickbait, Stockport Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town.

To get our top stories in your inbox each week, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter HERE.

Please consider following Stockport Nub News on Facebook or X