All’s not lost on trams

GREATER Manchester’s resounding rejection of the congestion charge scheme means £2.8bn of public transport improvements have been derailed. In Oldham, the borough’s Metrolink plan will be curtailed and planned extra buses won’t arrive.

Reporter Robert Leeming looks at the troubled history behind bringing trams into Oldham and what the referendum decision will mean.
OLDHAM would have received one of the biggest benefits from the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) with trams re-routed into the town centre and along Union Street.

The borough’s regeneration plans were centred on the Metrolink expansion and it was hailed as heralding an economic boom.

But Metrolink is still coming to Oldham as the money had already been secured to transform the loopline from train tracks to tram lines.

Commuters to Manchester will still be able to hop on to a tram into the city or Rochdale once the line which has creaked its way through the last decade with delays and cancellations plaguing its timetable, is finally replaced.

But such work takes time and will create much disruption with the track closed for nearly two years.

With more than a million journeys made on the line every year, how will commuters manage while the loop is transformed?

The last train into Oldham will circle the line on Friday, October 2, 2009. Work will then begin with completion due in autumn, 2011.

It will be an historic moment as the 12-mile train route which links Oldham to Rochdale, Shaw and Manchester dates back to the 19th century.

It will be replaced by a system which hopes to complete nine million journeys a year on services between Shaw and Manchester every six minutes and between Rochdale and Manchester every 12.

The journey has already been a long and complicated saga which has seen the project cancelled and restarted many times because of arguments over funding.

The then transport minister Alistair Darling axed the expansion in July, 2004, citing spiralling costs, only for it to be relaunched after the successful local “Back On Track” campaign. The TIF money, reliant on the congestion charge, would have helped pay for the extension.

Commuters rely heavily on the line and rush-hour trains are often packed, with standing room only in the ageing carriages.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) plans to lay on bus replacement services for the two-year period when the line will be closed. It has promised to work closely with bus operators to see how the existing bus network can be adapted while the line is upgraded.

A concrete plan won’t be announced until February 2009, after surveys have taken place.

The fact that GMPTE has not yet released a confirmed plan for the interim period worries Peter Dawson, secretary of rail passengers’ group STORM.

He said: “If a plan is announced in February, that only gives a few months for objections for its contents to be considered and coach companies to be recruited to run the replacement services.

“When Victoria Station was closed, a bus replacement service did run well, but that was only for 10 weeks. I don’t think GMPTE has taken into account the length of time for which there will be no service — and the amount of people who commute.”

It’s likely that journey times will be tripled and the replacement bus services will be at the will of the often terrible Manchester rush-hour traffic.

Congestion will get worse over the next few years as the work gets under way and former rail passengers take to their cars.

Commuters who use the line are generally positive towards the conversion — but are apprehensive about the arrangements for the time when there will be no service.

Passengers at Shaw and Crompton said they would welcome a reliable rail service, but would miss the railway during its absence nonetheless.

Sophie Embly, a Salford University student, commutes to Manchester every day on the 8.45am service from Shaw to Manchester to get to lectures.

She said: “For the last three Mondays, my train has been delayed and the entire thing was closed all day a few weeks ago. There does need to be something done, I don’t care if there are trams — a reliable train service would be fine.”

Andrew Marsden, who works at 111 Piccadilly in Manchester, was waiting for the 5.15pm service at Manchester Victoria to Oldham Mumps.

He said: “It’s good that it’s being done, it can’t carry on as it is. But if you drive there is the parking problem, which is expensive in Manchester.”