Stations ‘far from perfect’

WHILE Greenfield residents celebrate a new railway station, thousands of other Oldhamers are getting a raw deal, says a watchdog.

The majority who travel daily to Manchester from Mumps, Werneth, Shaw, and Mills Hill are forced to use the city’s failing Victoria Station.

And, for its five million passengers a year, Victoria “does not provide a welcoming environment”, says TravelWatch NorthWest which promotes public transport in the region.

Since the Manchester Arena was built in the early 1990s, there has been little work, says the report. “Over the intervening years there have been mutterings of major changes but, to date, nothing significant is evident.”

The most-used entrance has signs of decay and misuse and the gents toilets are a “disgrace”.

The report said: “It is acknowledged that there are drug-related and other issues but that does not absolve the operator from providing a facility which is fit for use by law-abiding passengers.”

In fact, all Manchester’s seven railway stations need “urgent attention” to make them fit for the growing number of passengers, the watchdog claims.

Even the award-winning Piccadilly Station, which had a £100m refurbishment in 2002, is far from perfect.

The watchdog criticised its information screen and the complicated arrangements to keep the heavily used through platforms 13 and 14 free of waiting passengers.

And there has been “little significant improvement” at any of the others, the watchdog added, demanding alternative finance to the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund, lost when congestion charging was voted against in last year’s referendum.

In most need of action is Oxford Road, described by English Heritage as one of the most dramatic stations in England but which “falls well short of the modern expectation of customer provision”.