Bury has been ranked as the lowest Greater Manchester borough for its levels of access to public transport – and some residents have even left the area over the issue.
Transport for Greater Manchester released data last month ranking all of the Greater Manchester postcodes on their accessibility to public transport, from worst (a score of one) to best (eight).
Bury’s average was the lowest of all, while the boroughs of Salford and Manchester had an average rating more than a whole category higher.
Only 25% of Bury residents live in an area rated at Level 5 or higher – meaning the majority of people living in the area could struggle to use public transport easily.
Residents of Ramsbottom, in particular, face challenges due to the limited bus services to Manchester – a single bus route operates just once an hour.
One resident born and raised in Ramsbottom felt she had to move because of the poor levels of transport available.
Business consultant Anna Hill, 24, moved to second highest rated borough Salford after transport access issues were impacting her mental wellbeing, friendships, lifestyle and work life.
She said: “I was sometimes spending up to four or five hours just getting to and from Manchester and I just couldn’t believe it.
“I’d speak to some people who lived in Leeds or Liverpool, and it would take them less time on the train then it would take me to get in – and yet I’m considered to be in Greater Manchester.”
She added: “It was stopping me from feeling happy because I couldn’t do things.”
Nights out with her friends, her dating life and even getting a gym membership were all affected by the limited amount of public transport available to her.
Anna said: “I’m a 40-minute walk from the bus stop – I’ve even walked in the dark and cold to go back home.
“I remember our main road got cut off and there was a day where I was stood outside, and it was only one degree – and the bus drove past me because it was full.
“I remember crying on the phone to my dad.
“Now I can’t imagine crying over transport. It seems a bit crazy now that I was doing that a year ago.”
Since moving to Salford, Anna said that the level of transport makes her feel much closer to everything: “I’m quite happy to pay for rent because last year I realised I was paying for everything with my time.”
Anna is not the only one frustrated by the lack of services available in the area.
Mortgage broker Andrew Mannion, 44, also finds the number of services available in Ramsbottom poor.
He said: “Nearly every time I wait for the bus it will just drive straight past because there’s never any room on it.
“It’s absolute chaos.”
Andrew added: “It’s meaning people are leaving the town and it’s a shame.
“I’ve got friends who are moving away from the area – but if they could travel out easily enough, they would stay.”
With the footfall expected to increase in Manchester as the festive time arrives, Andrew said it is only going to get worse.
He said: “I tend to use public transport into the city at the weekend but with the Christmas markets on now, you might as well not bother at all because the demand is so high.”
Ramsbottom councillor Gareth Staples-Jones said: “For a region where we are trying to promote public transport, you’re trying to get from one of the most northerly parts of Greater Manchester into the city centre – where perhaps there are opportunities for jobs, employment, further education etc – and it’s so hard to do that.”
“It puts people off getting public transport at the end of the day.”
Cllr Staples-Jones noted getting between boroughs was also hard work and something which the Bee Network is aiming to improve.
He said: “The absolute biggest issue about transport in Greater Manchester is you have to go into the city centre in order to go out.”
“One of the things that the Bee Network is trying to do is deliver strategic bus routes.
“They are trying to get priority bus routes between the different boroughs.”
Bury Council leader Eamonn O’Brien said: “Improving access to public transport is a key part of the Bury Local Transport Strategy published in October last year.
“We consulted on a draft Strategy in summer 2023 and received a lot of feedback about the borough’s public transport offer not being good enough, particularly bus services.”
Cllr O’Brien highlighted bus services to the north of the borough as a particular concern, including to Ramsbottom and Tottington.
He continued: “We also have an excellent Metrolink line but one that only serves the north-south corridor within the Borough and terminates in Bury town centre, which doesn’t help people wanting to travel east-west across the borough and doesn’t directly serve the townships and more rural areas to the north of Bury town centre. All this means that residents are over reliant on having access to private vehicles, with no real alternative travel options.
“That is something we are looking to change. We think that all our residents, or anyone who visits or works in the Borough, should have a real choice of how they travel. We need to provide a much better public transport system that’s safe, affordable and reliable and to make it possible for people to make some of their short local journeys by walking or cycling if they can.”
Cllr O’Brien is also chair of the Bee Network Committee, which is working to deliver a fully-integrated transport network for the city-region.
He said: “All Bury’s buses have been franchised and part of the Bee Network since March 2024, and by January 2025 all Greater Manchester’s buses will have joined the scheme. This borough’s bus network is now going through a review process led by TfGM to identify what improvements can be made to the network that we’ve inherited from the private operators who previously controlled the network.”
TfGM is now looking at the feedback collected from residents on public transport.
Cllr O’Brien added that potential improvements could include new or more frequent services as well as “Local Link” type services for more rural residents with lower passenger demand.
There will also be a Local Bee Network Forum meeting four times a year which met for the first time last month – it is due to meet again in February.
The borough’s transport strategy plans to update Bury Interchange for its Metrolink connections, improve local bus services in terms of frequency and reliability, and possibly even a link between Bury and Rochdale using tram-train technology.
Sadly the changes will come too late for Anna Hill, who is now in better-connected Salford.
“I do love Ramsbottom,” she said.
“A bit of frustration is that I would like more people to go to Ramsbottom.
“Ramsbottom isn’t a village, it’s not the countryside. It still has stuff – it just doesn’t have the connections to everything.
“Young people aren’t going to stay if there’s not a reason to.”
Featured Image: Bus Stop on Ramsbottom Lane. cc-by-sa/2.0 – © David Dixon – geograph.org.uk/p/4336444
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