Path cleared for ‘very early’ start on Manchester underground

Going underground with the tram network is not good for catching the bad guys! An elevated tram line is best as it enables the police vehicle to drive underneath when pursuing those pesky drug smugglers from over the Channel.

this is encouraging. the future for Manchester transport looks bright

Fully supportive of extending public transport, but does Stockport really need Metrolink given there are around 10 trains per hour into Manchester all of which will be far quicker than a tram

An underground system is pointless when we already have a perfect central tram system. The only benefit would be along the Oxford Road corridor.

Good news everyone! My considered opinion is that I want it now, I’ll want more tomorrow and I want Manchester to look like the opening credits of Futurama by 2075. Now get on with it!

They are going to use the East Lancs line from Heywood to Bury, which means we will just need Rochdale to Heywood installing.

Manchester definitely needs an underground transport system. With the increasing density of the centre and land value going up and up it needs to preserve as much surface level space for buildings, parks, amenities etc. Once again Manchester is paving the way for other UK cities to follow in terms of demanding more and driving growth in the UK outside of the government’s precious London. Keep up the good work!

Sounds great , a full network to Greater Manchester . Just need to sort out the the Liverpool / Manchester/Leeds line .

Shouldn’t we look at building a monorail before going underground? All great cities have them.

If GM keeps growing faster than the UK over the next ten years the conversation about a tunnel becomes a lot easier to have with central government.

Presumably the Heywood – Bury link is planning to use the heritage rail route currently operated by the East Lancashire Railway – does anyone know how this is planned to work and what effect it will have on the ELR?

Burnham playing fast-and-loose again with London-centric ideas, to the cost of the council tax payer. The underground is unnecessary and will not provide value for money.

Underground is an absolute must now as the city is starting to choke with traffic. Manchester has proved its productivity, that can help boost the national economy. It now needs supporting in this to fulfill its potential. I cant think of many other cities (outside the UK) in the developed world with an effective population of over 3 million that doesn’t have one.

Bury Heywood metrolink is absolutely pointless. Ploughing ahead with it for the sake of optics. Heywood is much better served with a rail link into Rochdale and quickly on into Manchester from there.

When the country is in so much debt this vanity project is a waste of money. Before expanding metrolink beyond the city of Manchester, something needs to be done about the areas of South Manchester that don’t have metrolink and have poor bus services

Why has Bury got the tram system and not Bolton . The towns are of a similar size geographically and population.

Will the extension of the line from Bury to Heywood use the ELR preserved line? If so, what does that mean for the ELR? Do they have a choice?

It’s a pity Burnham doesn’t tackle the debt of the council that’s currently north of 1.5 billion…300m up from last year.
Chase the debt then perhaps you can lower our ever rising council tax bill!

finally an underground!! They best build this. it’s about time. genuinely embarrassing how underdeveloped British city transport truly is

DC Doyle both ideas are suitable for helping people’s connections Franco or otherwise. Although elevated trains cancelled distract drivers and cause collisions as well you know.

With the increase in new housing in Tyldesley Atherton and leigh and the increase in associated population with Tyldesley and leigh having to rely solely on the guided busway, with a proposed new station being built in Golborne with that being at least 3 miles from the outskirts of leigh. More transport Link’s should be a Priority over other Districts.

There has several feasibility studies for an Underground system in Manchester over many decades.
Let’s make it happen this time so that Manchester becomes a truly global City.
Greater Manchester needs an action committee made up of politicians, railway specialists and infrastructure professionals that have a viable plan they can take to the Government and then aggressively lobby then until we get what we need.
Schemes in London just keep on proceeding apace whilst we are given scraps.
As we are well aware London and Birmingham have got HS2. That should have come to Manchester with proper project and budget management.

What about walkden,swinton etc

Stockport extension is not needed or wanted by the residents of Stockport. We have excellent transport to Manchester already. Tram is so slow whereas the train takes ten mins. Wish Mr Burnham would listen to residents instead of ploughing on with this vanity project which benefits no one.

Initial drawings to link Victoria / Oxford Road and Piccadilly started to be draw up in 1973. I worked in a drawing office involved at the time. It was somebodys dream then and it still is. Fifty two years later.

The tram from ashton to stalybridge would be a great future for the town.

Oh no. The crime on the trams are so high, it will be even more underground.

Whats great news is the 3.5 mile Airport western rail link business case for Mid cheshire which is desperately required for this district! Thousands of Mancunians have moved to Northwich in the last 10 years! and better connections are required!

When will the Cop lane tram stop be built

I don’t use London Underground, so definitely won’t use Manchester. Get Trams and more buses running through ashton upon mersey. They have literally one bus it’s disgusting

Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle have underground metro systems why not Manchester?

@Northwich and knutsford , trains are so slow from Northwich to Manchester City centre , it’s 22 miles away but takes 55 mins … and only has one train an hour. Northwich to the airport is 15 miles, but by train involves a 55 min train journey into Manchester then another 20min train to the airport …

The east didsbury extension to Stockport will be great for people who live in chorlton and didsbury and work in Stockport , or just fancy going shopping in Stockport or a night out or a match at the soon to be expanded Stockport county, and will make getting a train from Stockport to London , Sheffield , stoke, and brum quicker than going to Piccadilly. It’s just that a 2030 start is such a long time off, just in time for reform if they get in to cancel it!

They need the long train/tram lines into the city because just like London the majority who work and make the money for the city will be living in it’s close suburbs.. either expensive closeted central apartment living or rural and commuting in.. looking at many changes to much of Manchester’s districts especially south, areas are looking like they will collapse.. the lawlessness and lack of social cohesion isn’t pretty. You can’t keep moving problems on.. eventually there’s nowhere else.

Space for bikes on trams. Especially if replacing train routes

And what about network rail opening south reddish and Denton stations, giving a proper service. Offer connection to Marple from Stockport. Plus stations on Chester line besides Cheadle

Bury got the tram before Bolton, because it had two Tory MPS during development. The first line linked Tory Bury, with Tory Sale and Altrincham. It was political.

Manc – you are mixing up Manchester city council with Greater Manchester. Burnham has no jurisdiction over Manchester council’s debt or the debts of any other council in the country.

Anonymous 7.38..or is it DC Doyle? 😄 is that really the best you can come up with? Celebrate with us and if lt works well one day you might get one too and we’ll all be happy. This is a good thing!

Daft Monkey did a video on YouTube on the Picc-Vic underground a while back going into the history of the very early proposals for underground around the city centre..very interesting.

Actually the Manchester Underground history program on YouTube was the Bee Here channel..I watch them both along with Martin Zero. There is some really interesting stuff on there.

The last tramline extension opened in 2020 to the Trafford Centre. Why has it taken six years for TfGM to develop the proposed pipeline and why will it take until 2028/ 2030 for work to commence… and take so long to reach the finishing line.. the mid 30s according to the documentation. How many staff at TfGM are working on these plans and how will the additional £6 million be used? Like a lot of public sector infrastructure programmes everything progresses at a snails pace. Perhaps the planner should look to Europe for inspiration, or closer to home: the 36mile long Manchester Ship Canal took a mere 6 years to build, without modern equipment and technology!

Everyone complaining about the Stockport Tram extension consistently misses the point of improving the East-West transport links which in south Manchester are dire. It’s not being built to compete with the links into Manchester, its to avoid having to use them as a hub.

The underground system is very much needed. Think long term growth and efficiency. These other ideas people are suggesting, they are nowhere near as fast as an underground system, once that it is place we will see economic growth in this city like no other city in the UK (except London) has seen before.

People want to be able to get to places quickly, cost effectively and with ease, if this can be achieved people will choose the underground system over cars and it will drive more people and businesses to the city. More economic growth.

Manchester should not be viewed as an averaged sized mediocre city, we should be on the scale of global mega cities with modern infrastructure. Currently, we only have 1 city like that in England really we should have a few cities.

People seem to be missing that the news here is that business cases are being prepared for all of the extensions of the team network, they are not Al actually happening. It is 6m not 6 billion. The underground is pure blister and totally not needed. The trams do what a city the size of Manchester needs and even if it grows. People in the suburbs and surrounding towns don’t have the same need as in London as the density is ttottally different. The money it would cost means it’s never going to happen. Digging a few through tunnels under parts of the city centre for trams to go through and if the Liverpool to Leeds High speed build goes ahead, both may do, but that is the limit. Pure vanity and a waste tto even consider spending the sort of money needed for an underground. Trying for that is not the same as redressing the balance of money spent in. The south. It has to be on value for money and workable solutions that will actually benefit an area.

This is the UK. This is a city outside of London. The underground won’t come until Manchester’s population doubles in size and it is literally too late for it to make any sort of viable difference. And even when it does come it won’t operate efficiently for a good while.

When London Underground opened in 1863 the population of London was 3.1M. The current population of Manchester is 2.9M. So they need to get on with getting it built

Economic Audits are not “business cases”. They are not looking at the cost-benefit of a project to see if it will make a business/commercial profit. These Economic Audits are investigating the overall community, city, regional or national benefit of a capital investment project. There is a world of a difference. This explains why the motorway connecting NW / Manchester to South Yorks / Notts / Sheffield has not been built and why the electrified rail line across the West Yorks Moors to Sheffield was closed down. Maybe it was losing a couple of thousand pounds a year. No business case for it. That way you would run-down most of UK manufacturing industry and national infrastructure. Hang on! That is what happened. Somebody forgot to tell the rest of the world about the UK Business Case investment Appraisal Methods. No wonder China is still so economically backward.

By the way, the UK is not “in debt”. Lots of money “spent” by the UK government is a capital investment. You borrow, invest and reap the dividend later. It is called Capitalism.

He doesn’t lack for ambition Burnham but a lot of this is rhetoric.

We are not Londoners… so leave Manchester as it was always meant to be above ground. Bad enough that there are trams. The infrastructure with trains and buses and taxis has always worked fine . The trams are a nightmare

The city centre has two tram lines which are insufficient to cope with current demand and allow little flexibility to accommodate maintenance work. Whilst I believe going underground is the long term solution a third city centre crossing is needed now, perhaps from Piccadilly station along Whitworth Street towards Oxford Road station and then joining the current network at Deansgate.

Reading a lot of these comments it’s no wonder the UK is in the state that it finds itself in. Short-termism and a complete lack of ambition has left this countries infrastructure in absolute tatters. I’m sure there was plenty of backlash and naysayers when the Elizabeth Line was under consideration but for all intents and purposes it has been a huge success and actually a signal that the UK can still pull off big, modern infrastructure projects (even if it was severely over budget and delayed). When will the people of the UK accept that change is needed for us to progress and break out of this economic stagnation? Every world-class city has an underground. Paris, London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo etc. Most medium sized European cities even have an underground. Oslo, Stockholm, Lyon, Porto etc. all have an underground. How is this a vanity project when it has literally been proven across many cities to have significant economic, environmental and societal benefits?

Still no mention of Hyde on these extentions

I think we need a underground system in the North. Then a lot of people would stop using there cars which is better for the environment. It’s essential for future growth

Since an ex Councillor got his hands on the ELRs chairmanship it was doomed, handing over their hard fought for railway line from Bury to Heywood to metrolink!

Some of the people posting here have an obsession with London. Many cities across the world, similar size to Manchester, have underground systems. Milan, for example, has a great, reliable, cheap underground system. Even in this country, Glasgow and Liverpool have small systems. Manchester would benefit greatly from an underground network.

Manchester definitely need underground around city centre. Very very important to reducing traffic around city centre and accidents as well as that .

Gorton, Denton, Hyde……anybody?

An elevated monorail is A: Cheaper and B: More efficient – This should be a considered option.

Meanwhile Stockport has a brand new bus station that’s too small even for existing services.

Wish I lived in Manchester the upgrade to our bus station was 2 benches the last bus from Gloucester to Stroud via my stop is 7.30pm there is definitely a south north devide and where I live we don’t get anything.

“The infrastructure with trains and buses and taxis has always worked fine”

Has to be the biggest lie I’ve read on here for a while. I sincerely hope you are joking, otherwise you clearly don’t have a clue what you are talking about

The Tories let the North of England down with their spending tens of billions on London Crossrail and London to Birmingham HS2 then cancelling everything in the North. But will Labour do any better? Rachel Reeves said on the 11th June that an announcement will be made on Northern Powerhouse Rail “in the coming week”……. Almost 3 months later has anyone heard this announcement?

An underground system is an unnecessary an expensive solution. Isn’t it about time we banned private vehicles in the City centre given the excellent integrated bus, tram and train network. That would be a real environmental statement!