Wheels in motion on sardine service

Greater Manchester needs to spell out the misery of overcrowding on its commuter trains more clearly to the Government.

That’s the view of a leading Oldham councillor after officials agreed to look again at the wording of their bid for future funds in the third Local Transport Plan.

The scheme will go to the Government at the end of the month — setting out local transport strategy for the next 15 years — after complaints by deputy mayor Richard Knowles.

Councillor Knowles, professor of transport geography at Salford University and a regular user of the Greenfield to Manchester rail line, is objecting to a passage which says of the last five years: “Rail patronage also grew steadily, but has reached a plateau more recently as many peak-time trains are approaching (or exceeding) capacity.”

He said: “I don’t think the thousands of rail passengers who suffer every day will agree with this. Overcrowding is not a future problem, it is a current problem.”

Councillor Knowles pointed out that the executive summary of the same report says in much stronger terms: “In the short term, overcrowding remains the biggest problem. We urgently need additional carriages to ease pressure on the system and to enable local rail travel to continue to grow.”

He is also joining Lib-Dem colleagues on Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority in demanding better Sunday services.

The authority subsidises Sunday services which operator Northern Rail claims to be unprofitable — including the service to Manchester through Greenfield.

But councillors are challenging Northern’s figures after Sunday trains were introduced on the Atherton line last year and passenger numbers exceeded all forecasts.

Councillors from Stockport supporting new Sunday trains to and from Marple say Northern is seriously underplaying demand.

Councillor Knowles added: We have been subsidising two-hourly Sunday trains from Greenfield since 2008 and they are absolutely packed out.

“We should challenge Northern if the actual usage is way above their forecasts.”