The government will invest £84m in the railway network across the North West to make trains more reliable – but the Transport Secretary has said this funding is just for 'shorter-term stuff' for one of the country's most congested bottlenecks.
Longer platforms, upgraded trackside equipment and bigger depots are set to 'transform' day-to-day journeys for train passengers, the government says. The infrastructure improvements will allow for longer trains with extra seats and fewer delays to services under the new timetable from December 2022.
However, the number of trains travelling through the congested Castlefield corridor will remain at 13 per hour at peak times, the Transport Secretary said. It comes eight years after the Conservative government promised to create two extra platforms at Manchester Piccadilly to relieve the congestion – but this was not signed off and was not included in rail plans released last year.
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Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham welcomed the news but said it 'won't come close' to solving the bottleneck in the city centre, saying 'investment on a much bigger scale' is needed for the region's rail hubs. And speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the £84m investment is for all the 'shorter-term stuff'.
He said: "The trouble with the corridor is that we're trying to stuff lots of services and trains through and they're all clashing. The timetable all falls apart if one thing goes wrong.
"What this money is going to do - both for the way the corridor operates, and in conjunction with the timetable - is provide a much more reliable service."
Upgrades to track-side equipment between Manchester and Liverpool and platform extensions on the Cumbrian route are set to start this summer. Further works next year will see additional platform extensions to some of the busiest routes across the North West and West Yorkshire - including the Chat Moss, Bolton and Styal lines - supporting the roll-out of longer electric trains.
In total, £26m will go towards design and development work on three planned tranches of upgrades to improve passenger facilities at Piccadilly and Victoria, as well as plans for re-signalling works on the Castlefield Corridor and a remodelling of Oxford Road station – all to be completed by the mid-2030s.
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Shapps promised trains would be more reliable than they were before the pandemic once this work is complete and the new timetable is introduced. He promised that the government would spend 'billions of pounds' on a long-term solution to the congestion at the Castlefield corridor, claiming that Piccadilly would become the best connected train station in the country.
Defending the decision to ditch plans for an underground station for a new high-speed railway line, he said this would delay HS2 coming to the city. He argued that the current plans to create concrete viaducts across East Manchester is much cheaper and can be delivered within the next decade.
But despite this saving, he said the government is spending more money than ever before on railways in the North through the £96bn Integrated Rail Plan. He said: "There's never been more money spent on Northern trains - never, ever. Not in history. Not since the Stephenson's Rocket. Not ever."
Responding to the announcement, mayor Andy Burnham said: "Any investment in rail in central Manchester is of course to be applauded. But, as welcome as this is, it won’t come close to solving the capacity bottleneck in our city centre nor will it bring our stations up to a modern standard.
"Make no mistake - investment on a much bigger scale is needed if Greater Manchester and the North is ever to have the rail services we deserve. If you look at the five rail stations serving our city centre - Victoria, Salford Central, Deansgate, Oxford Road and Piccadilly - they are all suffering for a lack of investment.
"Most haven’t seen anything significant since the 80s or 90s. Compare this with the situation in London and practically every major station has had a major overhaul in the last two decades. If we are ever to see the rail system of Greater Manchester levelled up with London, it will require a lot more than this."
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