Oldham to benefit from new rail move

Oldham is due a massive economic boost from plans for major railway improvements which would follow the arrival of Metrolink.

The borough’s rail travellers could get direct trains to Manchester Airport, Piccadilly, Liverpool, Bolton, Chester and Southport in a huge £530m shake-up of the North of England’s railways.

Network Rail’s plans for the “Manchester Hub” would bring 700 more trains a day and a massive 35 million passengers a year to the North.

Mills Hill rail users would benefit from two extra trains an hour from Rochdale to Manchester as well as direct services to the airport and Liverpool via a new line at Ordsall, Salford, to directly link Piccadilly and Victoria.

Greenfield passengers would see direct and faster trains to Bolton, Chester, Leeds, Manchester, Southport and Wigan.

They would also see Manchester Victoria reborn as a major interchange, two extra platforms at Piccadilly and possibly even direct trains from Burnley to Manchester — via Mills Hill — as a “Todmorden Curve” is built.

The scheme, also called the “Northern Hub” would spend half a billion pounds over the next 10 years to build on work which is already under way. By removing historic bottlenecks, it would allow faster line speeds, reducing journey times.

New track would give greater timetable flexibility — allowing fast trains to overtake and run at speed while still providing space on the network for vital local stopping services and freight.

Network Rail chief executive Ian Coucher, who travelled to Manchester to make the announcement, said: “Through better connections, faster services and improved stations we want to trigger wider growth which in turn will support local jobs and businesses.”

Ashwin Kumar, rail director of the Passenger Focus watchdog, said: “Passengers will welcome this as a step towards alleviating overcrowding and speeding up journeys.”