The new Bee Network transport system that launches this month is set to transform people’s lives in the city

The first yellow buses are already driving through Greater Manchester’s streets, bold and bright as the change they herald. This month will see the birth of the region’s Bee Network: a system of joined-up, accessible transport that local leaders hope will transform people’s lives for the better.

Buses are at the heart of the change, returning under the region’s control as franchises after nearly four decades of “the chaos of deregulation”, as the mayor, Andy Burnham, terms it.