Town centre’s £5m Metrolink facelift

Oldham Council is to spend £5m on improving the town centre in preparation for the arrival of Metrolink in the spring of 2014.

Trams will be running on the old Oldham loop line by next autumn but new details have been finalised for the one-and-a-half-mile town centre route which will replace the railway between Mumps and Werneth three years later.

The council-funded work will include demolition of the subway at the Manchester Road roundabout with a replacement crossing at surface level and junction improvements and a new link access road between Yorkshire Street and Oldham Way at the Mumps end of the town centre.

There will also be a facelift for the town centre with new bollards, benches, litter bins and trees.

A report by officials for the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority states: “The scheme is integral to the regeneration of Oldham and the successful implementation of the Town Centre Masterplan.”

The trams extension will be fully compatible with the existing Metrolink network, and will be used by all trams, new and old. All the stops — Westwood, King Street, Oldham Central and Oldham Mumps — will have ticket vending machines, passenger information displays, public address equipment, CCTV cameras and passenger emergency call buttons.

There will be a tram every six minutes between 7am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday and every 12 minutes after 7pm.

The report adds: “The implementation of the Metrolink route through the town centre will enhance the town’s highway and pedestrian infrastructure along Union Street.

“This, in conjunction with improving access to the town centre via a new link road, will create better connectivity within the town centre and offer a stronger investment environment.”

And it goes on: “The extension will address the existing accessibility issues from the Mumps and Westwood areas to the town centre; improve the links between the town centre and the communities of South Chadderton, Shaw, Hollinwood and Failsworth; and will provide an attractive public transport alternative for car users wishing to access services and jobs in Oldham town centre.”

There are no plans to replace the old Werneth station with a tram stop and officials say that the area will be served by the Westwood stop.

To save money, trams will not use the tunnel between Manchester Street and the King Street stop and will instead go overground across the roundabout. And there will be a new interchange and park and ride site at the Mumps roundabout with the old Mumps railway viaduct to be demolished this autumn.