article

Greater Manchester’s transport revolution

Posted: 18 August 2008 | Councillor Matthew Colledge, Chair of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) | No comments yet

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) is responsible for overseeing the provision of public transport in the county. It is made up of 33 councillors from the ten councils in Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) implements the Authority’s policies.

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan area at the forefront of modern urban transport planning. The city region, which is home to over 2.5 million people, is the prime economic force for the North West of England and connectivity has played a significant role in sustaining its economic renaissance over the past 10-15 years.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) is responsible for overseeing the provision of public transport in the county. It is made up of 33 councillors from the ten councils in Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) implements the Authority’s policies. Greater Manchester is a metropolitan area at the forefront of modern urban transport planning. The city region, which is home to over 2.5 million people, is the prime economic force for the North West of England and connectivity has played a significant role in sustaining its economic renaissance over the past 10-15 years.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) is responsible for overseeing the provision of public transport in the county. It is made up of 33 councillors from the ten councils in Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) implements the Authority’s policies.

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan area at the forefront of modern urban transport planning. The city region, which is home to over 2.5 million people, is the prime economic force for the North West of England and connectivity has played a significant role in sustaining its economic renaissance over the past 10-15 years.

We now have a renewed interest in Greater Manchester’s public transport network, as the city region debates the opportunity offered by the UK’s Transport Innovation Fund (TIF).

A bid by Greater Manchester to the TIF process was approved for programme entry earlier this year by the UK Government, amounting to a £2.8 billion package of investment in its public transport network, supported by a limited, peak-time only congestion charge. Local consultation with members of the public and businesses began in July and this research will inform a decision later in the year on whether to go ahead with the package on offer.

If the package is agreed, GMPTA would oversee major improvements to Greater Manchester’s bus, train and tram networks in the space of five years that would otherwise take at least 30 years to achieve under current mainstream transport funding arrangements.

We are already overseeing a £600 million expansion of the Greater Manchester Metrolink tram network, which is expected to attract five million journeys currently made by car off our local roads and increase the number of journeys passengers make on the network from 20 million to 33 million a year.

Money from the TIF package would take Metrolink to even more destinations, and provide scope for up to 70 million tram journeys in total each year.

The TIF investment proposals also encompass a new approach to bus service provision, supported by improved, punctual services, a new fleet of Yellow School Buses, better passenger information and ticketing services and new bus interchange facilities.

On the local rail system, we also propose more train carriages, better stations, and more opportunities to ‘park and ride’. Finally, all the plans are to be supported by a more integrated approach to service planning across modes.

The huge programme promises exciting times ahead delivering a very ambitious strategy.

The public consultation will run until 10 October. The aim is to explain the scheme and record the opinions of members of the public and businesses before a decision is made.

But where are we now? We also have many other exciting developments ongoing.

Trams

In June, we appointed the M-Pact Thales consortium to work with us to design, build and maintain our new Metrolink lines.

M-Pact Thales is made up of Laing O’ Rourke, GrantRail and Thales UK. The team has previously worked on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link at St Pancras, the Singapore Mass Transit System and the London Underground.

The new Metrolink lines will cover nearly 20 miles and include 26 stops. The new routes will run to Oldham and Rochdale, Droylsden in Tameside and Chorlton in South Manchester, and construction work is due to start early next year.

The line to Rochdale will replace a run-down train line which runs between Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale. Trains will stop running on the line in Autumn 2009, and trams are due to begin running on part of the new Metrolink line in Spring 2011. By Spring 2012, all three of the new routes will be up and running.

The consortium will also build a new quarter-of-a-mile extension to the new MediaCity:UK development in Salford Quays, which will be the future home of the BBC, subject to final approval from the UK Government.

We’ve already ordered 28 trams to run on the new Metrolink lines. The trams are being built by global transport company Bombardier in partnership with Vossloh Kiepe and are costing just over £2 million each. The new model of tram already operates in several European cities, including Cologne and Bonn.

Bombardier is designing and manufacturing the trams at its sites in Bautzen in Germany and Vienna in Austria. Up to 200 passengers will be able to travel on each of them, and wide double-doors will make it easy for people with wheelchairs or child buggies to get on and off.

The extra trams will double the frequency of services running through the city centre when the new Metrolink lines open. Most city centre stops will have trams calling at them at least every three minutes during the daytime in both directions.

We are also investing over £100 million on improvements to the existing Metrolink network. Last year, we ordered 12 new trams from Bombardier to relieve overcrowding on the existing Metrolink network, and provide a new service to MediaCity:UK in Salford Quays.

In Summer 2007, we completed a major project to replace nearly 20 miles of worn-out track on the existing system. Some sections of the track were more than 50 years old, having previously operated as local heavy rail lines before Metrolink took them over in 1992. Tram rides are now much smoother and quieter. The new track has also helped to improve reliability as the trams need fewer repairs due to wear and tear from the track.

We planned carefully, so that we could carry out the work during the Summer months when fewer people would normally be using Metrolink. We kept as much of the network open as possible, and trams continued to run on the Eccles line and in the city centre throughout the Summer. The lines reopened on time and the project was completed within budget.

Buses

There are more than 50 bus operators running services in Greater Manchester. Over 80% of the network is operated commercially – with the remainder funded by GMPTA for socially necessary journeys not provided by the private sector.

We also own and operate Greater Manchester’s 21 bus stations and are also responsible for over 12,000 bus stops, over 4,000 bus shelters and for ensuring reliable and up-to-date travel information in print, by phone and on the web.

In addition to our statutory responsibilities, GMPTA remains active in promoting innovative bus schemes to make bus travel a real alternative for our citizens. Approximately 85% of all public transport journeys in Greater Manchester are made by bus. We are committed to doing all we can to make these journeys as comfortable and reliable as possible.

Quality Bus Corridors

Greater Manchester’s Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) programme aims to help make the bus a real alternative to the private car, by improving bus priority and service quality along key bus commuting routes.

So far, the programme helped to reduce journey times, improve punctuality and increase patronage on services. We have now delivered almost 200 separate schemes, including traffic signal upgrades, bus lane schemes and pedestrian and cycle improvements.

QBC routes cover 176 miles of road in Greater Manchester and include more than 20 miles of bus lanes. They have led to a 14% rise in passenger numbers equating to 6.1 million additional journeys.

Yellow School Buses

From a standing start, we now have 36 Yellow School Buses in Greater Manchester, taking more than 2,000 pupils to and from school. Children who travel on the buses sit in the same seats every day, have regular drivers, and have to sign up to a code of conduct that guarantees their good behaviour.

They have been very successful and popular with schools, parents and pupils and take more than 400,000 car miles off the road every year.

Metroshuttle

GMPTA and Manchester City Council have developed a network of free ‘Metroshuttle’ buses run in Manchester city centre, linking rail, bus and tram stations with all key employment and leisure destinations in the city centre. The three routes, which make up the network, constitute the largest free city centre bus service in the UK.

The service is funded through an innovate partnership with Allied London Properties – the developer of the city centre’s Spinningfields business district – and NCP Manchester – the largest car-parking operator in the city centre.

All Metroshuttle buses have low-floor access, making it easy for people to get on and off them. Services operate at high frequencies throughout the day and are marketed in bright distinctive route colours – orange, purple and green – to make the network easy to understand. Metroshuttle has proved hugely popular – carrying over 2 million trips per year – and is contributing to reducing the impact of car travel in the heart of the city centre.

CCTV

Finally, we are also committed to making travel by bus safe for all – recognising that this is particularly important for the more vulnerable parts of the community. To this end, we launched CCTV in bus shelters in 2006, in partnership with local councils, Greater Manchester Police and our bus shelter provider JC Decaux.

Shelters across Greater Manchester have been fitted with up to eight miniature cameras to record what is going on in and around the shelter. The cameras can be moved from shelter to shelter in order to target hot-spot areas. Notices have been posted on bus shelters informing people that CCTV may be operating.

Figures for 2007 show that bus shelter vandalism in the region dropped by almost 20% compared to 2006 and images taken by the cameras have led to police intervention including final warnings, fixed penalty tickets and arrests being made for people caught vandalising shelters.

Public transport is growing in importance to Greater Manchester. The central aim of GMPTA is to support the economic, social and cultural development of the city region by improving the quality and connectivity of public transport within it.

We are delivering a number of exciting projects at the moment – as outlined above – and have many more planned that will help make sure that we keep Greater Manchester moving forward.