GM Mayor reveals how he plans to pay for free bus pass for 16-18 year olds

Greater Manchester’s Mayor has told the Chronicle how he plans to fund his proposed scheme to offer free bus travel to 16 to 18 year olds.

Andy Burnham says the ‘Opportunity Pass’ – essentially a free bus pass for teenagers aged between 16 and 18 – would be a vote of confidence for young people that they can go on to better themselves with easier access to travel in our region.

He spoke at the opening of the Oasis Academy in Leesbrook on Wednesday, where he said he would have failed if he is not able to change the lives of young people in Oldham.

One of the ways he wants to improve opportunities for people in our region is by making travel throughout Greater Manchester much easier.

He told the Chronicle: "We all have to recognise that young people have been the target for cuts by Westminster.

“From my point of view, I'm using devolution to make them my priority for investment.

“That's why I'm bringing through free bus travel for 16-to-18-year olds to give them that sense of hope for the future.”

We asked how the Greater Manchester Mayor would be able to pay for the proposals, after years of budget cuts and a drive to fund bus routes and services.

"It's not a cheap thing,” Mr Burnham said. “But when I stood for Mayor, I said I wanted to make young people my priority because I don't believe you can build a strong society in any other way and I'm fulfilling that promise.

"It's partly going to be funded by asking our schools and colleges to help us with the costs as some of them are already funding travel and we're going to work with them to get hold of some of that funding.”

Mr Burnham also said he would be seeking sponsorship to free up funds for the scheme.

He added: "I also have to ask the public to help pay. This is crucial for a bigger reason. We won't have better buses in Greater Manchester until we get more people travelling on buses.

“What we've had for 30 years is the bus system in decline and the number of journeys reducing every year. 

"That then leads to services being cut. So this bus pass is actually about getting better buses for everybody.

“By getting more young people on them we can probably protect some services that might be at risk.

“So when people are being asked to pay for this, I don't want them to think, 'why are we paying for that and what about us?'.

“This is about helping them to help everybody.

"If we get more people on the buses, we'll protect more bus services and also, of course, cut traffic congestion on our roads.”