Andy Burnham has declared himself “extremely confident” that Greater Manchester’s £2 Bee Network bus fare cap will remain throughout 2025, easing fears of a price hike that had worried passengers across the region.

The mayor introduced the £2 limit on single bus tickets in 2022 on private services, maintaining it when publicly-controlled Bee Network buses launched in September 2023. While the Conservative government later applied the same £2 cap England-wide, Labour ministers announced last October that the national limit would rise to £3 in 2025 as the National Bus Fare Cap fund was set to expire on December 31, 2024.

Burnham defied that decision 36 hours later, confirming Greater Manchester’s £2 cap would stay - though subject to a “mid-year review”. The mayor can maintain the lower fare because Greater Manchester’s cap draws from the £640 million Bus Service Improvement Plan fund, guaranteed until March 2025, rather than the £151 million National Bus Fare Cap fund that supported the English-wide limit.

“I know there have been concerns about the affordability of the £2 fare cap,” Burnham told Friday’s Greater Manchester Combined Authority meeting. “But I can give that assurance that I am extremely confident the £2 fare cap, which is a hopper fare, will remain in place for the duration of this year. That will help our residents to save money.”

The announcement came as Burnham confirmed plans to raise the mayoral council tax precept by £16 annually for Band D properties, with £11 of the increase earmarked for Bee Network subsidies. The rise was reduced from an initially planned £12.20 after better-than-expected revenues.

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