The big ‘Bee Network Boats’ proposal Andy Burnham’s team ‘would support’

Friday, 5 December 2025 21:20

By Ethan Davies

The vision for Manchester Ship Canal with Bee Network boats. Image: WW+P Architects

It’s a warm May day in 2038, around 5:40pm. You’ve just finished work in MediaCity and you need to meet some friends in town by 6pm.

You could use Metrolink, but there are 100,000 fans heading to the new Manchester United stadium that will slow your tram down. That’s why the roads are snarled-up, too, so a taxi or a bus is out of the question.

But there’s no need to panic, because a yellow Bee Network Boat will arrive at the MediaCity pontoon in a minute, stopping near Pomona Island on the Ship Canal before zooming passengers into the city centre a few minutes later.

It’s a fantasy of 2025 Greater Manchester. But this is the vision one major architecture transport firm, WW+P, has for the city.

Fresh from designing stations on London’s Elizabeth Line, Barcelona airport’s new terminal, and the new underground Melbourne Metro tunnel, the firm believes Greater Manchester’s transport system could get a much-needed boost with boats.

“Andy Burnham has done the Bee Network with tapping in and out. Taking one step further, this [waterway] is already here and it’s a great way to get from MediaCity to Victoria,” explained Martin Richards, WW+P senior architect.

Although using the Ship Canal heavily would be a return to days of Victorian Manchester, Mr Richards insists it’s an idea fit for 21st century as aquatic transport is taking off in other UK cities, London’s ‘UberBoat’ is a firm fixture, Birmingham has water taxis, and West Yorkshire’s version of the Bee Network, the Weaver Network, has plans to include vessels.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) data shows demand for trams is at record levels, bus passengers numbers have sky-rocketed in the last two years, and hopes to see a similar trend when it starts running commuter railway lines and stations in the next five years.

Land around the Ship Canal is set to become more populous, with 11,000 new homes coming to MediaCity, nearby SoapWorks, Pomona Island, and around United’s new ground, also expected to have 25,000 more seats than Old Trafford.

After the Bee Network begins running trains, its next big leap forward is hoped to be constructing three tunnels underneath the city centre. Should the multi-billion-pound project ever happen, even optimists only estimate they could open by the 2040s at the earliest.

TfGM says ‘significant additional public transport capacity to and from the regional centre’ is needed to hit its targets for 2050. Using the water to cheaply expand the Bee Network could make sense, Mr Richards added.

“It’s fairly low cost transport to build. You do not need a tram line,” he said. “If you build pontoons people will come to the riverfront, even moreso with homes [being built]. There’s already some passenger pontoons here.

“It’s cheaper to build and cheaper to operate. It’s nicer than a packed Metrolink, which means Metrolink will be less packed too.”

The LDRS understands TfGM would support passenger ferries if a private operator proposed it first. Its new ‘local transport plan’ revealed last week bosses are willing to look at new ideas to keep the city moving, like tram-trains, autonomous cars, and boats.

But Martin believes using canals to get around will lead Mancs to celebrate our waterways in an effort to make ‘the city more enjoyable and livable’.

He added: “Manchester has turned its back on the river for years. It should reposition and turn around because it makes the city more enjoyable and livable.

“To do that you need to relate it to the transport infrastructure. The city was built on this canal. It was created to get ships in from all over the world.”