Andy Burnham offers £2 bus fares - but will the sums add up?
Plus, a rare Lowry goes on sale - and the rest of your weekly briefing
Dear Millers — welcome to this week’s briefing. We look at today’s announcement about £2 bus fares in Greater Manchester and what the pledge really means. Plus, we’ve found a beautiful gothic church up for sale in Stockport and news of a famous victory for West Disbury and Chorlton AFC…
On Saturday, we published a piece by our culture writer Sophie Atkinson, who went on a literary tour of Manchester with prizewinning author Okechukwu Nzelu. You can read the full piece here.
Last week, members got stories about worshippers at an Eritrean Orthodox Church in Crumpsall and an interview with author and historian Joanna M. Williams about local trailblazer Lydia Becker.
Tomorrow we’re publishing a brilliant story for members about a Manchester man making the long trip to Ukraine, and on Thursday we’ve got a piece about looking for love at an over-60s singles club. Join us to get those, if you’re not a member already.
🎧 Listen to The Manchester Weekly
“We’ve responded to volcanic eruptions, cholera, conflicts,” the founder of an international aid organisation with Manchester roots tells us in our latest podcast. Tony Redmond OBE has witnessed firsthand the devastation of conflict and natural disasters, including the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing and war-torn Kosovo. Now, UK-Med is in Ukraine, carrying out vital humanitarian work. Listen now on Apple, Spotify or your favourite streaming service.
The big story: A big headline and few details about Burnham’s bus revolution
Top line: Andy Burnham knows how to get a good headline. The front page of this morning’s MEN carried some exciting news for users of public transport in Greater Manchester: “FARE DEAL: Mayor to cap cost of bus travel at £2”.
Of course, bus travel is not being capped at £2 — that’s the planned price for an adult single fare under the new franchised bus system that will start to be rolled out next year. It will be a “hopper” style ticket familiar to anyone who has caught a bus in London — the ticket will be valid for any buses you catch within an hour of purchase.
What’s changing: At the moment, Greater Manchester (like most of the country since the 1980s, but not London) has a deregulated private system in which bus companies can mostly choose their routes, set their fares and make it pretty costly to switch between different operators without planning ahead. Under the new system, tickets will work across services, and the first regulated buses will operate in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Salford and west Manchester from next autumn. The rest of GM will follow in 2024.
Leading the changes will be Vernon Everitt, the city region’s new transport commissioner, who has been hired from Transport for London, where he was a managing director.
The background: There’s a good piece in Tribune magazine by Pascale Robinson, one of the leading campaigners for bus reform in GM, about how she and her fellow activists helped to persuade Burnham to back reform.
A broad coalition was pulled together, made up of unions, environmental groups, cycling campaigns, tenants unions, anti-poverty groups, Quakers and community groups that had tried to save local routes. We met monthly to strategise, thinking on the most effective ways to influence him [Burnham]. We went to every public meeting he had and asked – when are you going to bring buses into public control?
Back to fares: Burnham tweeted this morning that the “era of people paying £4 or more for a single journey is coming to an end” and there’s no doubt that a £2 fare would be very good news. But there’s never been any doubt that Greater Manchester will require significant investment from the government to lower fares from their current levels. And the funding to underpin today’s announcement has not yet been promised to Burnham.
Gary Nolan, who leads the Greater Manchester Bus Operators Association, told The Mill: “It’s all about ‘we need someone to pay for it’. It’s all promises made on government funding.”
According to one of the giant consultation documents produced last year, “the overwhelming majority of passengers” in Greater Manchester buy period tickets rather than singles, and today’s promise doesn’t cover those. We checked Transport for Greater Manchester’s website, and there is no information about those kinds of tickets.
Capping: One of the big benefits of taking buses back under “local control” was the ability to offer price capping for journeys across both buses and trams. That will be the real “cap” people can get excited about. And today no detail has been offered about that price either.
The question: Why has the £2 fare been announced without any details attached and without any mention of the overall cap and other fares — the ones that are much more important to people who rely on the system for work? “It’s part of a funding bid,” one official says. We’re told Greater Manchester is waiting to hear back from the government and they don’t really know what they can promise at this point. In which case, can Burnham really promise a £2 fare? “The mayor is pretty much committed to it,” the official tries to reassure us.
Getting headlines like today’s is easy — it generated a good news story for Burnham on the day he made a showy presentation about the future of Greater Manchester. But working out how to run a massive bus network with declining usage, angry bus operators who opposed the franchise system and uncertain government funding — and doing so without big local tax rises — will be much harder.
Bottom line: Burnham is very good at working the press and articulating a vision for this region, but on big complex policies — like the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and the Clean Air Zone — his administration has come unstuck on the details. Will the same happen with bus reform?
Go deeper (members only): After 35 years, Greater Manchester prepares to dismantle Margaret Thatcher's bus legacy.
Home of the week
This 20th-century Methodist church in Stockport features red brick and was built in a gothic style. It’s on the market for £190,000.
Other local news in brief
Conflict broke out at yesterday's women's march against male violence. The march was led by multiple feminist groups, and the leader of one such group — the Northern RadFem Network — had a milkshake thrown over her. There were also reports of glass bottles being thrown and one Twitter user reacted by saying “TERFs [Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists] are violent and try to present trans women as dangerous threats while strangling and kicking them”.
Families of Manchester Arena bombing victims have told the inquiry that there were “multiple opportunities” to prevent the attack. Pete Weatherby QC, who represents seven families said: "This was not a low-sophistication methodology which meant the conspiracy to bomb the arena was difficult to spot or at least to disrupt.” More here.
Eton College is expected to open a free sixth form centre in Oldham and draw its intake from students on free school meals and disadvantaged postcodes. The Berkshire public school, which charges fees of more than £44,000 a year, is working on the scheme alongside Star Academies. More here.
Andy Burnham today announced that Greater Manchester will become the first city region to pay the real living wage to adult social care workers. It comes as many social care workers in the UK have left the profession due to burnout and stagnant wages.
An L.S. Lowry painting called The Sea, completed in 1964 is up for auction at Christie’s this week. It was last sold in 1968 for an undisclosed sum and was bought by J.P Jacobs. It’s expected to sell for between £1.2 million and £1.8 million. More here.
West Didsbury and Chorlton AFC thrashed their rivals, Shropshire-based St Martins at the weekend. They won 18-0 on Saturday, sending St Martins into relegation.
Rates of Covid-19 in Greater Manchester are rising. The region’s case rate is 295.9, up 47.9% in a week, compared to England’s 497.1, up 49.3%. Trafford has the highest infection rates, Rochdale has the lowest.
This week’s weather 🌤
Our weather forecast comes from local weatherman Martin Miles, who says: “A mostly fine week of weather is coming up, the exception being a washout on Wednesday.”
Monday 🌤 Dry with sunny spells. Patchy cloud will increase from the northwest during the afternoon. Max 12°c.
Tuesday 🌤 Dry with plenty of sunshine, once early fog patches clear. Max 12°c.
Wednesday 🌧 Wet with heavy rain. The rain will be most persistent during the afternoon. Max 11°c.
Thursday 🌤 Dry with long sunny spells and light winds. Max 12°c.
Friday 🌤 Dry and mostly sunny. Feeling quite warm in the sunshine. Max 15°c.
Weekend 🌤Remaining settled with high pressure in control.
You can find the latest forecast at Manchester Weather on Facebook. Daily forecasts are published at 6.15am.
The Sea by L.S. Lowry is up for auction at Christie’s this week, a rare example of his seascapes. It’s expected to fetch between £1.2 and £1.8 million.
Our to do list
🕵️♀️ Festival | Manchester Libraries Crime Festival starts on Wednesday. It’s packed full of panel talks and a Murder Mystery Night on Friday. Book here.
🎸 Music | Band on the Wall has a great lineup of music this week, including afro-pop duo Amadou & Miriam on Tuesday, and the John Kelly Quartet playing on Wednesday. Info here.
🕺 Dance | Ever wanted to learn vintage swing dancing from 1930s Harlem? Now you can at Whitworth Locke. Starts tomorrow at 7pm. Book here.
📚 Book | Altrincham native, historian and author Joanna M. Williams will be talking about her biography of early suffragist and trailblazer Lydia Becker on Saturday at Friends’ Meeting House at 12 noon. Open to all, no booking required.
🥘 Eat | HQ in Fallowfield rustles up delicious Nigerian food. The menu includes barbeque catfish, tomato stew and jollof rice. Info here.
🎾 Sport | Treat yourself to a session of glow in the dark badminton on Tuesday. Kicks off at 2.30pm. Book here.
Our favourite reads
Student rapist in Liverpool was released to attack again — The Sunday Times
How did Greater Manchester Police allow Charles Goodwin to be set loose after compelling evidence he had raped a teenager? The piece opens with Sarah’s story: “She had no idea that eight months earlier this cocky business management fresher had been arrested for brutally raping and throttling another student in Manchester. He had been bailed and then released under investigation without charge.”
Making the cut — Aeon Magazine
Two bioethicists from the University of Manchester weigh in on the question of gene editing in this fascinating piece, which asks, just because we can, does it mean we should? “IVF embryos might be screened for genetic defects and corrected, before being implanted into the womb.”
Me and my Syrian refugee lodger — The Guardian
After the government announced it was offering UK households £350 to host refugees, the Guardian’s North of England editor Helen Pidd reshared her article about her experience hosting a Syrian refugee in 2016. “‘You are not going to like me saying this,’ my dad said, ‘but you need to get a lock on your bedroom door and a lock on your bathroom door. Men can get very frisky when they are away from their wives.’”
Is Ed Sheeran the most cynical man in pop? — The Sunday Times
Manchester institution Night & Day Cafe gets a name drop in this piece. “In the long distant past — 2010 — I was a talent scout for a major record label. In a half-full club in Manchester (Night & Day, if you know it) I saw a scruffy teenager with a small guitar take to the stage. His name was Ed Sheeran. I wrote in my notebook: ‘Smug. Is good but knows he’s good.’ I am not the man who signed Ed Sheeran,” writes Dave Fawbert.
Letters to the editor
“What might it look like for somebody who has made terrible mistakes and been homophobic and misogynistic and really has so many regrets about life and being a bad father and husband? What would it take for someone to turn it around?” Wise beyond years (‘If I were famous, you wouldn’t have to ask, would you?’’) Good to be out and about in Manchester at the first chirp of spring in such pleasant company. Phil, Wythenshawe
I never knew there was a difference between Suffragists and Suffragettes until a few years ago (‘Lydia Becker gets her biography’). The main focus for womens' voting rights was always on the Pankhursts and their supporters who favoured direct and sometimes violent action to achieve equality in this field. Without Lydia and her fellow Suffragists paving the way it would have taken a lot longer, I feel. Anne, West Midlands
The Miil started up promising much but you get more like the MEN with every issue .
Second rate journalism with this issue . So disappointing.