Buses across Bolton and Greater Manchester will be publishing updates on their performances on arriving on time from now on every week.

The first tranche of “punctuality data” was published on Thursday January 25, showing the difference between pre, post and non Bee Network punctuality.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said he hoped this would be key to tracking how will the new bus networking was doing in making sure they arrived on time.

He said: “From now on, at 8.30am every Thursday, we will publish weekly performance data for Bee Network buses.

“We know things are not perfect and improvements are still needed.

The Bolton News: The first set of 'punctuality' statistics The first set of 'punctuality' statistics (Image: Bee Network)

“But we are now confident that the Bee Network is better than the deregulated services it replaced.”

According to the Bee Network’s own findings, “punctuality” was better in the seven days leading up to January 24 on its buses than had been the case on pre or non Bee Network buses.

They define “punctuality” as being when a bus departs within a window of up to one minute early and up to five minutes late.

The need to improve buses in Bolton and across the whole of Greater Manchester was given added impetus after a Friends of the Earth report found a steep decline in buses over the past decade.

The report found that bus frequency in Bolton had fallen by just under a third between 2010 and 2023.

But on a visit to Bolton last autumn just after the launch of the new publicly controlled Bee Network, Mr Burnham admitted that its first few days had been “bumpy.”

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This came after complaints about late and disrupted services on the first Sunday and Monday of the network’s launch in September last year.

But the distinctive yellow branded buses have by now become a regular sight in Bolton and Wigan, where the Bee Network first launched, as well as in parts of Bury and Salford.

This comes ahead of plans to extend the network all over Greater Manchester in the coming years.

The bus punctuality data will now be published weekly on Thursday mornings on the Bee Network’s social media accounts.