Election platform for rail congestion issue

Date published: 27 April 2009

Oldham’s congested railway network is to become a general election issue — but politicians are likely to be told: “Don’t mention Manchester.”

The Chronicle reported on Friday that experts believe unblocking the Manchester hub will unlock £16bn of economic benefits for the whole of the North of England. Now, those experts are to campaign for the £300m Transport Innovation Fund — which would have come to Greater Manchester had last year’s referendum voted in favour of congestion charging — to be spent instead on the Manchester hub.

But they believe the name suggests only Manchester will reap the benefits. Two of the North’s congested trans-Pennine routes pass through Oldham at Greenfield and Mills Hill between Manchester and Leeds. Passengers have long complained of overcrowding.

A report by the Northern Way group of regional development agencies, which was launched at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester on Friday, says that the hub is the most fundamental rail bottleneck in the North of England. Network Rail will now examine the report and produce costings by the end of the year.

Professor David Begg said: “This is the most compelling railway scheme not just in the North but in the whole of the UK.

“I don’t know why it didn’t happen a century ago because the same congestion existed then.

“We have got to start to look at how to use the political clout of the North and make this an election issue.”

Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority vice-chairman Keith Whitmore said that his authority is to lobby all three party conferences this year for cash for the work to be done.

He said: “The terminology of the Manchester Hub does not really mean anything.

“In fact, this bottleneck is preventing all the North’s city regions from growing economically.”

Experts are now trying to come up with a new name before the election campaign starts.