The bold bus plan to increase passenger journeys by 50 million a year

Almost 200 years ago, the UK's first ever 'omnibus' started to run between Pendleton in Salford and the centre of Manchester.

It was a revolution for the public and as the years passed, the use of buses across the city-region boomed. Car ownership was low and expensive, leading to a peak in bus passengers from around 1950 onwards.

With the onset of cars, the use of buses gradually declined and in 1986, the bus market in Britain, outside of London, was privatised under deregulation, meaning services were no longer planned by local government. Decisions were taken away from town halls. Anyone could run a bus service anywhere for any price they wanted.

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But as was the case 199 years ago in 1824, as the onset of the modern-day bus trundled through Salford, Greater Manchester is now a pioneer once again. A vision for the future of bus travel across Greater Manchester has been unveiled months before the first publicly-controlled buses take to the roads. The newly-devised strategy, now made public, contains a raft of bold targets and ambitions under franchising.

Transport bosses want a 30 per cent increase in passenger numbers by 2030 compared to current figures - equating to 50 million more bus journeys every year. And the strategy sets out an ambition for 90 per cent of the entire Greater Manchester population to be within 400 metres of a 30-minute frequency bus or Metrolink service on weekdays.

The 'Bus Strategy' document, now endorsed by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), comes as the first publicly-controlled electric buses will be rolled out in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Bury and Salford from September, with the