Greater Manchester’s wins in bumper transport deal

Greater Manchester is set for a bumper transport deal with £2.5bn coming to the city in the next seven years - with 1,000 buses, new tram stops, tram-trains, revamped interchanges, and a Metrolink extension in the offing.

The government announcement paves the way for Metrolink trams to FINALLY run to Stockport town centre after years of campaigning – as well purchasing 1,000 new electric Bee Network buses and three stops on existing tram lines.

It’s understood they will be Sandhills in north Manchester, Elton Reservoir in Bury, and Cop Road in Oldham.

“This is a game-changing moment that will underpin Greater Manchester’s green growth for years to come,” mayor Andy Burnham said. 

“Building on our strong track record, we can now move at pace to deliver the next phase of the Bee Network – creating the UK’s first fully electric, zero emission integrated public transport system by 2030,” said mayor Andy Burnham.

“With a pipeline of major transport projects better connecting our towns and cities, and local rail lines brought into the Bee Network, our communities will be the first outside London to be served by fully joined-up bike, bus, tram and train travel.

“Greater Manchester has had a decade of growth faster than the UK average.

"This funding – together with our devolved decision-making powers – can be the key to unlocking even more growth in the decade to come.

"It’s a major boost for our own plans to deliver £10bn of investment over the next 10 years, build thousands of new homes, create skilled jobs, and open up new opportunities right across our city-region.”

No timescales have been given for when construction work will start, let alone when the new facilities will open, but the funding covers 2027-2032, and plans are expected to advance in the coming years.

The new tram stop in Sandhills will form part of Manchester’s £3.8bn Victoria North project, a ‘new town’ of 15,000 homes that will be built across 155 hectares from Angel Meadow in the city centre to Collyhurst in north Manchester.

It takes its name from the Sandhills park and former quarry, and would sit between Victoria and Queens Road stations, one of the longest gaps between Metrolink halts.

A similar line of thinking is employed for the new Elton Reservoir stop, falling between Radcliffe and Bury. 

It’s part of a project to build 3,500 homes on formerly green belt land around the new park and ride station, which will also ‘increase the attractiveness of the reservoir as a leisure destination and provide better access to greenspace in the south of Bury’, the borough’s transport strategy said.

A new station on Cop Road, in Oldham, would be built between the Derker station and Shaw and Crompton stop, and like Elton Reservoir is identified as a priority in Andy Burnham’s controversial Places for Everyone plan with 1,450 homes eyed for the location.

Tram-trains are also also set to come to Oldham, as TfGM added it will roll-out the hybrid services to the borough along with Rochdale, Heywood, and Bury.

The tech sees services run on traditional tramlines for some parts of the network, but on railway lines using batteries for others.

Few details have been released on the Stockport extension’s route, but previously TfGM chiefs said its bus interchange was built so it can link up to a new tram line

It’s thought the line could extend from the existing terminus at East Didsbury, and publicly-available maps of railway lines show that there is the dormant Manchester South District Railway which runs from the end of the in-use East Didsbury tram line.

Should trams follow the old rail line, they would then run through Heaton Mersey, but require a new spur crossing the M60 motorway and West Coast Mainline to reach the ‘tram capable’ town centre interchange.

The 1,000 new electric Bee Network buses are set to be purchased by 2030, meaning Greater Manchester’s transport network should be carbon neutral by the end of the decade.

Those buses could stop at a new Leigh interchange, with regular V1 passengers also set to hop off at a new ‘central Manchester transport interchange’, details of which have yet to be confirmed.

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