The annual Your Bus Journey survey by Transport Focus has identified a huge increase in overall passenger satisfaction across Greater Manchester in the first full year that the whole bus network has been under public control.
Greater Manchester saw the biggest increase in overall passenger satisfaction of any area in England, with improvements in perceived punctuality and on-bus passenger information, rising seven percentage points from 79 per cent to 86 per cent. This also includes an increase in satisfaction with value for money among fare-paying bus passengers to 79%, putting Greater Manchester way ahead of the rest of the country. The city-region was the only area not to record a drop in this metric, which nationally averaged just 63%.
The gap in satisfaction between disabled and non-disabled passengers also narrowed to one percentage point last year, improving on 2024 when there was a five-point gap.
The independent bus user survey, which captured the experiences of 1,211 passengers on buses and at stops across Greater Manchester, was carried out throughout 2025. From 2026 all local authorities in England (outside London) will be required by the Department for Transport to participate in the survey in order to receive Local Authority Bus Grant funding.
Fran Wilkinson, Customer and Growth Director at Transport for Greater Manchester, said:
“These results show the Bee Network is making a real difference to passengers. We’ve worked hard to keep the cost of travel down, capping fares and making multi-modal travel by bus and tram cheaper and more convenient and it’s great that passengers are already feeling the benefit of this.
“This report, which shows a significant improvement in passenger satisfaction, explains why more and more people are getting on board the Bee Network.
“Bringing buses under public control has allowed us to freeze fares at £2 for another year, make improvements to services, introduce new routes and increase reliability.
“It’s also meant that we were recently able to lift the 9.30am rule on concessionary passes, giving older and disabled people free round-the-clock travel every day. We are now looking at providing free travel for some children in temporary accommodation too.”
