Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council and Labour candidate for Greater Manchester mayor, is set to announce a sweeping expansion of the city-region's flagship youth transport policy, pledging free bus travel for all 11-to-18-year-olds across the region if elected.
Expanding 'Our Pass' to Younger Students
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Manchester Evening News, Craig revealed plans to build directly upon the foundations of 'Our Pass' - the heavily praised initiative originally introduced in 2019 under Andy Burnham. Currently, Our Pass grants free bus travel and discounted tram journeys to 16-to-18-year-olds and eligible care leavers up to the age of 25. Craig's new proposal aims to radically widen that safety net to include high school pupils across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.
"We've got a really exciting announcement and I'm really, really proud to say that if I became mayor, we would take the really successful Our Pass…and we would take that a step further," Craig told the Manchester Evening News. "We'd roll out free bus travel to all 11-to-16 year olds across Greater Manchester."
Financial Relief for Struggling Families
According to Ms Craig, the driving force behind the policy is twofold: expanding horizons for the next generation, and providing immediate financial relief to households currently pushed to the brink. "Families [are] telling me they're struggling," Craig said. "We know that too many people are finding life too hard at the minute and this is a really great example of how as mayor I will put more money into families' pockets. You shouldn't have to struggle just because you've got your kids to school."
The existing Our Pass scheme is already estimated to save local families roughly £500 a year per teenager. Expanding the scheme to include younger children could translate to thousands of pounds in cumulative savings for households with multiple school-aged children.
Historic Shift in Youth Transport
If implemented, the expansion would mark a historic shift in how youth transport is managed in the UK. By integrating the benefit into Greater Manchester's newly unified, publicly controlled Bee Network, the region would boast some of the most progressive connectivity incentives in the country. "There's a really, really exciting message in what we're saying for our young people in Greater Manchester," Craig emphasized.
In a speech later today Ms Craig is expected to say: "I'm really proud of the success I've achieved here in Greater Manchester with Andy Burnham to bring buses back under public control and build the Bee Network. I've seen first-hand how Our Pass, which gave free travel to 16-18 year olds had unlocked opportunities for college, work and just seeing friends. But I want us to go further. I've heard from parents who are struggling to cover the costs of getting about, and this will put more money in the pockets of thousands of hard-working families. Young people tell me that they want Greater Manchester to be for them, I don't want any young person to feel let behind in our region and this will open to door to experience all that our region has to offer."
Proven Success of Our Pass
The original Our Pass began as a temporary two-year pilot in September 2019 before being made permanent in 2023 due to its overwhelming success. Boasting over 50,000 active users at any given time, independent evaluations have shown that 91% of young people using the pass reported an increase in personal freedom. By targeting the 11-to-16 age bracket, Craig's proposed policy aims to hook young people onto public transport habits even earlier, while directly tackling the daily financial anxieties of working-class families across the region.
Tight Race for Mayor
Craig's policy announcement comes as fresh polling suggests the battle to replace Andy Burnham could become one of the most fiercely contested elections in the city-region's history. Following Burnham's dramatic move to Westminster - where he looks likely to become Prime Minister by mid-July following Sir Keir Starmer's resignation - Labour and Reform UK are separated by just three points in Greater Manchester. A survey of 1,143 people, carried out by FocalData on behalf of the campaign group Hope Not Hate, found Labour on 33.2% of first preference support, with Reform UK close behind on 30.1%. The Greens sit in third place on 12.5%, followed by the Conservatives on 11.1% and the Liberal Democrats on 7.6%. Given the poll's three-percentage-point margin of error, the July 30 contest is a potential dead-heat in the first round.
