Bury

How the public transport investment would affect Bury

There would be double-length trams on peak-time Metrolink services allowing lots more seats on existing trams to and from Bury and improvements would be made to rail, bus services and cycling routes.

The TIF package would also fund a study into the options for reducing congestion between Rawtenstall, Ramsbottom, Heywood and Bury, which include developing the East Lancashire Railway and extending it from Heywood to Castleton. Up to £25 million would be available to develop these options through re-allocated Local Transport Plan (LTP) funds that might have been invested elsewhere without TIF.

Furthermore, extra seats would be provided on peak time rail services to reduce overcrowding with station improvements across Greater Manchester, including Piccadilly, Victoria and Oxford Road.

Links: Metrolink | Bus | Park and Ride | Cycling | Improvements for Passengers

Metrolink

Double-length trams would run on Greater Manchester peak-time services with the capacity to carry 30,000 extra passengers in each of the morning and evening peak periods. With the already funded expansion of the system, as well as TIF, the network would be three times larger than its current size across Greater Manchester. TIF will fund 41 new stops and 20 miles of additional track.

Metrolink would be extended as far as East Didsbury, Manchester Airport, Oldham and Rochdale town centres, and Ashton-under-Lyne, with an additional line across Manchester city centre. Funding has been earmarked for a line to the Trafford Centre via Trafford Park.

Bus improvements

Bus services would also be enhanced. Examples include:

• Increased buses running between Bury and Manchester including extra journeys serving Pilsworth, Hollins, Unsworth, Besses o’th’ Barn, Prestwich and Carr Clough.
• Daytime services from Bury to Bolton, Heywood and Rochdale would increase to every seven to eight minutes in the daytime, every 20 minutes on Sundays and every 30 minutes in the evening.
• A direct service linking Bury town centre to Fairfield Hospital every 15 minutes in the daytime, and every hour in the evenings and on Sundays.
• A simplified service between Prestwich and Eccles, via Agecroft and Salford Royal Hospital, including a new evening and Sunday service.

180 Yellow School Buses would be introduced across Greater Manchester providing customised services to schools, with seats allocated to pupils and drivers dedicated to the service.

These are just a few examples, but Greater Manchester would see an overall increase of 10% to bus services with more services staring earlier, running later in the evenings and at weekends. Additional circular (orbital) bus services would connect areas across Greater Manchester.

Park and Ride

The TIF proposals would double the existing number of Park and Ride spaces serving Greater Manchester. Money has already been dedicated to this and positive feedback in the recent consultations has resulted in additional funds being set aside in re-allocated Local Transport Plan budgets for further sites across the region – funds that might have been invested elsewhere without TIF.

Cycling

Improvements for cyclists with 125 miles of cycle routes and cycle parking across Greater Manchester and cycle hire schemes in Manchester and Stockport.

Cycle routes planned for Bury include:

• the A56 Bury New Road – between Whitefield and the city centre
• the A665 Cheetham Hill Road – between Whitefield and the city centre via Cheetham Hill
• an upgraded route between Outwood and Rainsough through Clifton Country Park
• a new link crossing the M60 between Besses o’th’ Barn and Heaton Park providing safer cycle routes away from main roads

There would be secure cycle parking at Bury and Radcliffe Metrolink stations and extra cycle parking at Prestwich and Sedgley Park shopping centres.

Improvements for passengers

Further passenger improvements would include:

• a 20% reduction on public transport fares at peak times for low paid workers (statutory minimum wage)
• better and more timely travel information via real-time electronic displays and improved safety and security with CCTV, help points and better lighting at stops and stations
• an integrated ticketing and simplified fare structure using a new ‘Smartcard ticket’ would allow prepayment of fares for travel on trains, trams and buses

80% of the public transport improvements would be in place across Greater Manchester with a significant improvement in public transport in Bury, before the peak-time congestion charge would begin in summer 2013.