ABOUT THIS EPISODE
How much of the Bee Network's success is franchising, and how much is just money?
In today's Interchat with Vernon Everett, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester and chair of Transport for Wales, we get his answer, along with the numbers behind it: reliability up from 65% to over 80%, ridership up 30% in the first franchised area, and eight commuter rail lines joining the network from the end of 2026.
Vernon is candid that franchising is probably not for everybody. But if you want genuine integration across every mode, he argues, you cannot do it without control of the buses and the fare revenue.
This is the first Interchat recorded by Katie English, my Freewheeling associate.
Interchats are a series of short conversations recorded on the conference floor at Interchange 26 in Manchester.
