Greater Manchester (Parliament News) – Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham proposes new Metrolink lines and an underground system by the decade’s end, vital for regional development and economic growth.
Will Greater Manchester Get New Metrolink Lines by 2030?
Mayor Andy Burnham has stated new Metrolink lines to Stockport, Heywood, Middleton and Bolton could be made ‘by the end of the decade’. The mayor has reiterated his call for Greater Manchester to have an undercover system, stating it was vital for the region’s continued development. Mr Burnham’s remarks come after a major development of the Bee Network was announced earlier this week.
There are strategies to bring eight existing railway lines in the area under local control by 2028; extend the Metrolink, and construct a London-style transport system with fully contactless tap-in and tap-out payments.
What Are the Plans for Greater Manchester’s Transport Network?
Talking to BBC Radio Manchester this morning, Mr Burnham stated he hoped work on suggested new tram lines to Stockport, Heywood, Middleton and Bolton would begin during his current term in office and could be completed by the end of the decade. Asked by presenter Anna Jameson if those plans were realistic, Mr Burnham replied: “It’s realistic and more than that it’s essential.”
Questioned if the plans were reasonable, he stated: “Yes, because we have done well at managing Metrolink over the years. We’ve established that Metrolink can pay for itself but at the same time can get economic growth.
Can Manchester’s Infrastructure Keep Up with Regional Growth?
“We now have an administration that says its national mission is evolution. Greater Manchester has been advancing faster than the UK economy. Infrastructure is the enabler of change. If you don’t put the infrastructure in that growth will grind to a halt. “Greater Manchester, you could say, is in danger of this in some places where the development has gone faster than the infrastructure we’ve got.
“We think we can provide the expansion to Stockport, Heywood and Middleton and also look at Bolton with the budgets we have been assigned. I’m confident we can do this.”
Mr Burnham also reiterated calls for Greater Manchester to get a tube system, stating if the region wants to keep rising ‘we need to start talking seriously about an underground’. He stated: “We have got to start considering about the 2030s and the 2040s.
“[If you look at] any second city anywhere in Europe, pretty much every single one of them has a metro system underground. We can’t support doing everything on the surface in our city region. “The tram is bright and I think it’s a better service than the London Underground but at the end of the day if we are going to keep funding the growth that we all want to see and the Government wants to see you are heading to have to put in place even more expensive infrastructure eventually.”