A councillor has labelled a decision to cut a popular borough bus service as "madness".

Within 48 hours of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham announcing which companies would run the first publicly-controlled bus services in the region since 1986, operator Diamond decided to pull around a fifth of its fleet from the Bolton depot.

The loss of 30 buses means that fewer services will be running in Bury, Bolton and Rochdale, as well as parts of Salford, Trafford and Wigan, from mid-April.

Already affected by staffing shortages, the operator said the news that services would be taken over by Go North West in nine months’ time could "destabilise" the workforce and a reduced timetable would be more reliable.

West Middleton Cllr Phil Burke described the decision to cut the 163 which links Bury to Heywood, Middleton and Manchester, as "madness".

He urged Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) to save the "popular" service.

Speaking at the same meeting, the Labour councillor told his fellow members on the bus services sub-committee that cutting the service "make no sense economically or socially".

“We’d be cutting off whole communities,” he added.

But despite his desperation to save the "busy" service, the Rochdale Cllr repeatedly requested that operators which withdraw services – as Diamond is doing – are not given public money to continue running the routes in the short-term.

TfGM already subsidises services on routes which are being withdrawn.

These subsidised services – mostly on early mornings, evenings and Sundays – will continue to be operated by Diamond and TfGM is now considering how it can save the services which are being withdrawn which could end up costing more public money.

However, the bus operator has already said that it would "probably" decline any subsidy offered to continue operating these services.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Diamond’s commercial manager Thomas Calderbank explained that usually, when services are withdrawn, it is for financial services, so subsidies can save them.

But in this case, the services are not being withdrawn for financial services.

Representing Rotala – the company which owns Diamond – he told the bus services sub-committee this week that all of the routes which are affected are still profitable, but the reason for withdrawing services is down to staffing.

Councillors on the committee expressed their scepticism over these claims.

Responding to the news of the bus company’s decision last week, Moorside Cllr Kevin Peel said the move feels like "retaliation" for not winning the largest contracts to run bus services under the first tranche of franchising.

However, Diamond said that these claims "couldn’t be further from the truth".

Last year, Rotala lost two legal challenges against Andy Burnham’s decision to bring buses under public control.

However, in December, the company was one of only two operators which won contracts to run the first franchised services.

Last week, Mr Burnham told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he has asked TfGM to save services.

But he stopped short of criticising Diamond.

“People will read into it what they want to,” he said. 

“I’ve got to recognise that the decisions we’re making have significant implications and this is going to be a slightly disruptive period as we move from the old world into the new world.”

Later in the week, the bus services sub-committee questioned whether this is likely to happen again as the rest of the franchised network is rolled out. 

All buses in Greater Manchester will be under public control by January 5, 2025.

Starting with buses, the Bee Network – the name given to the new London-style integrated public transport system – will be rolled out in three phases with the next one affecting Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and North Manchester.

TfGM bus director Stephen Rhodes described the decision by Diamond as a "distraction" from the preparations being made before the launch of the Bee Network in September.

But he said uncertainty is "inevitable" as the current deregulated system is brought under public control over the next two years.

Salford Cllr Roger Jones, who chairs the sub-committee, said that the affected local authorities were "shocked" by the speed of Diamond’s decision.

Mr Calderbank explained that under the current system, operators must give 112 days notice of any changes to services, but said that he "fully appreciates" the frustration that the timing of the announcement has caused.

He said that the new timetable would improve services by making them more reliable.

“It will be a reliable 15 minute service instead of what at the minute is quite an unreliable 10 minute service,” he said of the 524 from Bolton to Bury and the 582 from Bolton to Leigh.

“While on paper it’s obviously a deterioration in the level of service, I think in reality, on the ground, it will be an improvement.”

“We’ve tried as best we can to mitigate the impact on people,” he added.

“I appreciate that certain people will disagree with that.

“But I do think the service on the ground, where we’ve reduced frequency might improve.

"It certainly shouldn’t get any worse than it is today in reality.”

Addressing accusations of "retaliation" by Rotala to the first bus franchising decisions in December, he said: “I’m aware that people have said it’s sour grapes and we’re spitting our dummy out because we’ve not won a large franchise.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. All of these services are commercially viable. They’re profitable.

"We make money from operating them. It would be unusual for a commercial operator to cut their nose to spite their face in that way.”

Asked to defer Diamond’s decision by a month, Mr Calderbank said that he was not in a position to do that, but promised to continue working with TfGM.

He confirmed that there are no further cuts to bus timetables planned before September other than some smaller changes during the summer holidays.

Some services could be saved. However, as of Friday, January 20, some of the services changes which are due to come into effect from April 16, 2023 include:

163: Bury – Darn Hill – Heywood  – Langley – Middleton – Manchester Piccadilly.

The majority of journeys are withdrawn. TfGM supported journeys will still operate early morning, evenings and Sunday daytime. The unchanged 471 service from Bolton to Rochdale still operates between Bury and Heywood.

524: Bolton – Little Lever – Radcliffe – Bury.

The Monday to Saturday daytime timetable will be revised to operate every 15 minutes.