Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of bus journey usage in Greater Manchester in each year since 2010.

The table below shows the number of bus passenger journeys in each year since 2009/10 for Greater Manchester.

Passenger journeys (millions) on local bus services by local authority: Greater Manchester ITA, from 2009/10:

Source: DfT Local bus passenger journeys, BUS0109a

Greater Manchester has an extensive public transport system and over a similar time period, passenger journeys on the Manchester Metrolink light rail network increased by 22 million from 19.2 million in 2010/11 to 41.2 million in 2017/18.

Local authorities are best placed to manage changes in their local bus network. The Bus Services Act 2017 gives them additional powers to do so through partnership working with commercial operators. It also gives Mayoral Combined authorities the automatic right to franchise their bus network and the Department for Transport can also grant these powers to other local authorities who make a satisfactory business case. The Department is also developing regulations to require bus operators and local transport authorities to provide data, in open formats, about local bus services including routes and timetable data; fares and ticket data; and real time information. We are working closely with industry to develop the regulations and it is intended the requirements will be phased in over the next few years.