Transport has become one of Andy Burnham’s defining issues as Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has championed the Bee Network, argued for London-style powers and made public transport central to his vision for the city region.

There have been real achievements. Greater Manchester has introduced bus franchising, giving local leaders more control over routes, fares and standards. The region is also moving towards a more integrated transport system.

However, the key question is not who controls the network. It is whether people can get where they need to go quickly, reliably and affordably.

For many residents, the answer is yes. For others, especially those living in Greater Manchester’s outer towns, the picture is very different.

Few places illustrate this better than Heywood.

With a population of around 30,000, Heywood is one of the largest towns in Greater Manchester without a station on the national rail network. It has no Metrolink connection and no direct bus service to Manchester city centre.

For many commuters, travelling into Manchester means changing buses along the way. During rush hour, the journey can take up to 90 minutes each way. For a town less than ten miles from the city centre, that is a serious barrier to jobs, education, healthcare and opportunity.

This is not simply an inconvenience. It is an issue of fairness.

While some communities enjoy direct rail services, fast tram connections and frequent routes into Manchester, others remain dependent on slow and indirect journeys. Access to opportunity should not depend on where someone happens to live.

Supporters of Burnham argue that he inherited a transport system shaped by decades of underinvestment and fragmented decision-making. They are right that the Mayor does not directly control most rail infrastructure, train services or major rail investment decisions.

However, Burnham has spent much of his mayoralty arguing that Greater Manchester needs more powers over rail, more local control over stations, longer-term transport funding and greater freedom to plan transport as a single network.

That makes the position of towns such as Heywood even more striking. After almost a decade of Burnham’s leadership, there is still no clear route to a rail connection, Metrolink extension or rapid-transit link for one of Greater Manchester’s largest disconnected communities.

Supporters also point to bus franchising as a major success. That achievement deserves recognition. However, some claims made about it deserve closer scrutiny.

Greater Manchester is often described as the first place outside London to bring buses back under public control. That is not strictly true.

Several towns and cities never gave up local control of their bus companies after deregulation in the 1980s. Nottingham has Nottingham City Transport. Reading has Reading Buses. Edinburgh and the Lothians are served by Lothian Buses. Other examples include Blackpool Transport, Cardiff Bus, Warrington’s Own Buses, Ipswich Buses and Newport Bus.

What Greater Manchester has achieved is different. It is the first large metropolitan area in England to reintroduce a London-style franchising system after decades of deregulation. That is a significant reform, but it is not unique.

This creates an interesting test of Burnham’s wider political arguments.

As Mayor, he has often said that local leaders need more transport powers, more control over rail services and more certainty over long-term funding. If Burnham became Prime Minister, many of those barriers could be removed.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto already moves in that direction. It supports greater devolution, rail reform and stronger local transport planning. These policies would help deliver many of the changes Burnham has called for.

The question is whether they would go far enough.

Burnham’s own arguments suggest that deeper reforms may be needed. If transport is to be planned properly across city regions, local leaders may need far greater control over rail services, stations, infrastructure investment and transport budgets than Labour has yet proposed. Without that, the risk is that places like Heywood remain dependent on decisions made elsewhere.

For Liberal Democrats, the lesson is not that Burnham’s reforms have failed. Bus franchising and transport integration are serious achievements. The lesson is that transport should be judged by outcomes, not structures.

Andy Burnham’s transport record contains real progress. But it also exposes a persistent inequality at the heart of Greater Manchester’s transport system.

A town of 30,000 people should not be left without a rail station, a tram connection or even a direct bus into its nearest major city. A successful transport system should connect every community to opportunity. Until places like Heywood enjoy the same quality of connections as better-served parts of Greater Manchester, the job remains unfinished.

* Iain Donaldson is the treasurer of the Rochdale Liberal Democrats.