Bee Bike hire and more cycle routes coming to Oldham

Bee Bike hire is also set to come to the borough, with the current cycle hire fleet, mostly concentrated in Manchester and Salford, set to expand to 8,000 bikes, in an effort to help people travel the first and last mile of their public transport trips.

The vision was announced at an event in Stockport on Monday, December 11.

The ‘Bee Active Network Vision’ foresees 2,000 new crossings and an upgrade of 470 junctions and crossings as part of plans to make it easier to cycle, walk, and wheel (such as with a wheelchair) throughout the region.

A map of planned walking and cycling routes in Oldham (Image: GMCA)

According to the report, which will be presented to the Bee Network Committee on Thursday, the plans would see a total cycle and walking network of 2,734 km in Greater Manchester, with 1,170km on busy roads, 932km on quiet roads, and 631km off road.  

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Transport bosses hope the network would mean more than 95 per cent of residents living within 400 metres of a Bee Network route upon completion.

An estimated value of the infrastructure required to deliver the network is £3.4 billion. Not all of the network has been fully funded.

This figure includes £1.86 billion on busy road routes, £344 million on quiet road routes, £382 million on off-road routes, £511 million on city and town centres, £54 million on pedestrian junctions, and £221 million for structures.

At the moment, 100km of the infrastructure has been delivered with around 11 per cent of the region’s population living within 400 metres of a completed route.

A total of 78km of schemes are currently in development, including an upgrade to junctions and routes around Oldham town centre.

A vision for routes in Greater Manchester (Image: GMCA)

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In addition to plans for more routes, transport bosses want to bring Bee Bike hire to every Greater Manchester borough, including Oldham, with ticketing set to be integrated with the Bee Network, meaning an interchange could be made with bus, tram and eventually rail.

Earlier this year, vandalism and damage meant that just 160 or around 1,000 bikes were available to hire.

Oldham borough currently has the lowest rate of cycling in England.

Asked how she would boost cycling in Oldham, Dame Sarah Storey said: “We’re working very hard with Oldham borough council.

“Oldham have their town centre plan that’s coming together and they’re working really well to produce the links between the tram station and the bus interchange, and it’s about building out the routes from the town centre.

“When you look at the town centre map and the segments as they put it together in a really clever jigsaw puzzle, it was really visionary, and it obviously takes time and things aren’t going to be built overnight.

“Once the public transport system is integrated into the active travel network some of those shorter journeys around the town centre will be easier to do on foot, in a wheelchair, and then going further afield on a bicycle.”

Dame Sarah Storey (Image: TfGM)

Dame Sarah called active travel the 'glue' of the Bee Network transport system.

She said: “Today we’ve announced the updated active travel map for Greater Manchester – the glue component of the Bee Network, if you like. The Bee Network is our London-style public transport system that’s been working alongside Vernon and the Transport for Greater Manchester team to make sure we can build a public transport network that works for everyone.

“The glue of that is the active travel network. As part of the report we are announcing that we need 2,000 more pedestrian crossings, we’ve also looked at the types of infrastructure that’s needed to make wheeling more easy.

“We’re looking at the protected cycleways being at around 1,100 km of cycle routes by 2040, so it really is an updated vision, and it’s been updated because when Chris Boardman originally promoted the Bee Network to start with, the public transport elements weren’t part of that.

“We’ve started with bus franchising and we’re incorporating Metrolink into the Bee Network as well, but we need the active travel network to make it easy for people to get around.”

“Up to May of this year there’s been 100km delivered, there will be 78km more delivered this year. Some of the kilometres that we’re talking about were already in development, and we’re working towards those being put out and starting to be delivered quite soon.

“It’s a mixture of routes, from off-road routes, on-road routes, protected cycleways on the roads that are the busiest of roads. The order that I asked Transport for Greater Manchester to do was the first report into the active travel network since it was incepted back in 2017.

“It’s really important to do that, not just because the public transport system has been incorporated into the Bee Network and it’s now this London-style public transport vision, but also to see what the impact of journeys and changing journeys has had over the last five years. If you don’t keep checking on your progress you won’t know that you’re heading in the right direction, so this is the updated vision of what’s needed.

“Some of the lines on the map originally were duplicates, so they’ve been taken out. It really has been a comprehensive look at Greater Manchester and what’s going to be needed to ensure that, by the time the network is complete, 95 per cent of residents are within 400 metres of a high-quality active travel route, with a real focus on walking and wheeling.”

The Bee Network

As part of the new Bee Network, bus routes, timetables and more are controlled by Transport for Greater Manchester from now on in Bolton and Wigan, as well as parts of Salford and Bury.

A yellow Bee Network bus (Image: TfGM)

Oldham and Rochdale's buses will come under the system from March 24, 2024, along with the remaining parts of Bury and Salford.

An additional 50 yellow electric buses, on top of those already in service, have been ordered ready for Oldham, Rochdale, and the remainder of Bury to become part of the system.

The remaining parts of the city region are set to join the system from January 2025.

After Greater Manchester buses in every borough have been brought under the system, passengers will be able to tap-in and tap-out across all buses and trams without having to decide on a ticket in advance, with fares capped at the “Bee AnyBus + Tram” price, similar to the system which has already been in place in London’s transport system for years, as well as many other major cities across the globe.

The system may even go cashless in the future, with Mr Burnham previously saying there was “an argument both ways” and that a decision had not been taken, before adding that most felt it would be safer and speed up journeys to go cashless.  

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Oldham. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk or click to send me a message on WhatsApp or on Signal on 07517566383.