Bee Network

This gamble paid off spectacularly.

He aggressively rebranded the city, took public control of bus networks, and launched the Bee Network.

Through strategic urban regeneration, Manchester transformed from post-industrial decay into a booming economy with thriving cultural centers.

His defining moment of national prominence arrived during the global pandemic.

It, it's nirvana in Man- in Manchester.

The Bee Network.

But-

Yes, of course

...

the Bee Network they call it, yeah.

But, um, we don't have that, so we have all these companies who fight with each other.

So you have a bus company that will deliberately arrive late so that the other bus has gone so you can't get the other bus.

It was a free-for-all, with bus companies piling into the most profitable routes and ignoring huge swathes of the region, with ticket prices two, three, sometimes four times higher than in London.

Burnham fought the bus companies in court to bring the whole network under one umbrella, which he named the Bee Network, after Manchester's civic symbol of the worker bee.

[tense music] I put to Lee as a key criticism of Burnham that he can't make tough decisions.

He disagrees, citing his sacking of the local police chief in 2020 after an inspection had found that Greater Manchester Police had failed to record 80,000 crimes, including plenty of violent crimes.