Greater Manchester will need the Government to provide £30m to stabilise the bus market and around £40m for Metrolink for the next financial year according to Greater Manchester Transport Committee:

In a statement released today they urge the government to extend support for bus and tram services so that the day-to-day lives of the people of Greater Manchester are not adversely impacted, particularly the least well-off and most vulnerable members of our society.

Without the additional funding they expect around one third of the region’s bus services to be affected, with a wide-scale reduction in frequencies and around 30 routes withdrawn completely.

“Public transport would be less reliable and appealing for those with a choice in how they travel and devastating for those who rely on it – which let us not forget includes a third of the residents in Greater Manchester – who do not have access to a car.

We are grateful for the support government has so far provided, which has enabled operators to maintain a core level of service to keep people connected with health services, jobs and education.

As the Transport Committee, we have been working for many years to build up and support local public transport services but there is significant risk that much of this hard work will be undone if funding is cut, or possibly removed altogether in just six weeks’ time.

The government has said it is bought into our transformative transport agenda, but that means nothing if we can’t maintain services at the current level. “

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