TRANSPORT bosses have announced plans to extend the guided busway.

The latest figures from First Manchester, which runs the Vantage services on the busway, show that 45,000 people a week are using the 4.5-mile bus-only route – which is almost equivalent to the population of Leigh.

More than 940,000 people have used the service since its launch in April.

Following the success of the guided busway’s first six months, bosses will now extend the route to Oxford Road in Manchester city centre to boost capacity and ‘future-proof’ the transport network.

Cllr Andrew Fender, chairman of the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) committee, said: “This feedback and figures are absolutely fantastic. I regularly hear positive things said about the guided busway from many people I meet.

“By investing in innovative infrastructure and insisting on a premium standard of bus, we have created a transport connection of real value and importance.

“The number of people benefiting from what has been provided continues to grow and I am delighted to see our investment being so quickly rewarded.”

Anthony Murden, TfGM’s bus priority programme manager, who led the busway team, said: “The benefits we wanted to see are already being realised.

“We planned from the beginning for it to become a valued asset for the communities it serves and for it to challenge the preference and need to travel by car.

“I am in no doubt that the busway will go from strength to strength, and once the full bus priority package is delivered early next year we will be able to offer an even greater journey experience to even more destinations, most notably to and from the Oxford Road corridor.”