Greater Manchester Bus Franchising

General

In accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 2000 (as amended by the Bus Services Act 2017) and having followed the legislative procedure set out within the same, the Mayor of Greater Manchester decided on 25th March 2021 to introduce a bus franchising scheme for the entire Greater Manchester Combined Authority ('GMCA') area. The GMCA will be the contracting entity and the bus franchising scheme will be overseen and managed by Transport for Greater Manchester ('TfGM'), including the procurement of franchise operators, on behalf of the GMCA.

The Franchise Network and Packaging Strategy

Franchise Network

• The bus network in Greater Manchester comprises circa 2000 buses delivering circa 620 local services and school services which have a PVR of circa 300.
• With a few limited exceptions, all local bus services provided within Greater Manchester will be provided under franchise contracts.

Packaging strategy

• The franchise network will be split into a number of franchises. At the outset of franchising it is anticipated that there will be 10 large franchise contracts ('Large Franchises') and 25 small franchise contracts ('Small Franchises').
• Large Franchises will have a peak vehicle requirement of a minimum of 34 up to circa 200 buses. In the long-term Large Franchises will have a minimum term of five years, with an option to extend by two years. During transition the maximum term of the Large Franchises, including any extension periods, will be ten years. Small Franchises will typically have a peak vehicle requirement of up to 33 buses and will have a minimum term of three years and a maximum term of five years.
• Bus franchising will be implemented across three tranches (otherwise called Sub-Areas) of procurement.

Franchise contract dates

The current indicative dates on which a franchise contract may first be entered into for each of the three tranches are:

• Tranche 1 (Sub-Area A) - 30th April 2022
• Tranche 2 (Sub-Area B) - 17th April 2023
• Tranche 3 (Sub-Area C) - 1st April 2024

Franchising Key Principles

The key elements of the commercial approach to franchising in Greater Manchester are summarised below. Further detail can be found in the associated document QSN II.2.4 Supplement - Description of the procurement, which can be found on the Pro-Contract E-Tendering portal (procontract.due-north.com/register ↗).

Depots: Large Franchises will be operated out of a depot provided by GMCA. For Small Franchises, operators will be required to provide their own depot facilities.

Fleet: GMCA will introduce a residual value (RV) mechanism that establishes a fleet of RV mechanism buses which, in a franchise competition, may be provided to all bidders on equal terms with ownership transferring to the successful bidder at the operational commencement date of that franchise. Operators will be responsible for the maintenance and repair of fleet in the RV mechanism, and the RV mechanism will provide a guaranteed residual value at the end of a franchise term. Operators will also be responsible for both the provision, maintenance and repair of any additional fleet required to operate the franchise.

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS): TfGM/GMCA will procure contracts for the supply and maintenance of some aspects of the required ITS solution (such as vehicle location, ticketing and driver communications systems) to ensure a standardised approach, which would then be made available to franchise operators who would be required to utilise this equipment.