This September, Manchester’s Museum of Transport is opening its depot doors and putting its vintage fleet back on the road for free heritage bus tours linking three of the city’s top cultural attractions.
Free heritage bus tours this September in Manchester
As part of Heritage Open Day, England’s largest festival of history and culture, the museum will run hourly tours using historic buses from its collection this weekend.
Dates: Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2026
Times: 10:00–16:00, with buses departing on the hour, every hour from the museum
Route: Museum of Transport (Boyle Street, Cheetham) → Manchester Jewish Museum → Science & Industry Museum → People’s History Museum → back to the Museum of Transport
Cost: Free; no advance booking required
The service is officially listed as Heritage Bus 7 in the museum’s event timetable, with stops timed roughly 25–30 minutes apart along the loop.
Visitors can ride inside working examples from Greater Manchester’s public transport history
Rather than just viewing buses behind glass, visitors can ride inside working examples from Greater Manchester’s public transport history.
The Museum of Transport, housed in a Grade II-listed 1930s bus garage in Cheetham Hill, holds more than 80 vehicles spanning from 1880s horse buses to modern prototypes, alongside tickets, timetables, uniforms and other ephemera.
During Heritage Open Days, the museum itself is also free to explore, offering a deeper dive into the region’s road transport story before or after your ride.
A mini cultural crawl in Manchester by vintage bus
The heritage bus effectively stitches together a compact, transport-themed cultural trail across central Manchester:
- Manchester Jewish Museum (186 Cheetham Hill Road) explores the city’s Jewish heritage through its historic synagogue and contemporary exhibitions.
- Science & Industry Museum (Liverpool Road) occupies part of the world’s oldest surviving passenger railway station and focuses on Manchester’s industrial and scientific innovations.
- People’s History Museum (Bridge Street West) tells the story of democracy, workers’ rights and social movements in the UK.
Riding between them on a period bus adds an extra layer of context: you’re not just learning about Manchester’s social and industrial history, but experiencing one of the key systems that helped shape it.
