A new bus and tram interchange will be built in Oldham under a multi-million pound plan that also involves ripping up part of a new Metrolink line.
Under the proposals, which will cost nearly £90m, Metrolink will run along Union Street to the new interchange at Oldham Mumps by 2014.
There will be a park-and-ride site for about 250 cars – providing a spur for regeneration in a run-down town centre area.
But part of the new Metrolink line being built to Oldham and Rochdale will be ripped up less than three years after it opens.
The 1.5-mile section from Featherstall Road to Mumps – part of the former Oldham and Rochdale train loop – will open this autumn. But this track and the old train station at Mumps will no longer be needed when the new track is built through the town centre and will shut when the town centre section opens in Spring 2014.
GMPTE Metrolink director Philip Purdy said: "To wait for the town centre line, the contracts for which were signed two years after the contracts for the original expansion, would have delayed the arrival of any trams to Oldham and Rochdale by several years."
Cash will come from the Greater Manchester Transport Fund – a £1.5bn investment pot created after the region’s failed congestion charge bid.
The new Oldham and Rochdale line will open to Central Park this spring and to Mumps in the autumn. It will reach Rochdale train station the following spring.
The ‘temporary’ line from Featherstall Road to Mumps will run through a new junction at Mumps roundabout. Mr Purdy said the equipment and fixtures would be recycled ‘as much as possible’ on other parts of the network. The new interchange will be built on the opposite side of Oldham Way, along with a new link road between Oldham Way to Union Street.
Coun John McCann said the town centre Metrolink scheme was a ‘massive step forward’ for local people. The proposals will be on display from 4pm to 7pm at the Link Centre, 140 Union Street, Oldham, tonight and on Tuesday.
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"There will be a park-and-ride site for about 250 cars – providing a spur for regeneration in a run-down town centre area"
How, exactly, does providing the means for people to go somewhere than better than Oldham (spoilt for choice there) provide a 'spur for regeneration'?
I'm not seeing masses of excited shoppers coming from far and wide to sample our dazzling array of pound shops, fast food outlets and half-empty pubs, populated by pensioners sinking booze whilst awaiting the call from the Grim Reaper announcing their numbers up, when they can find similar fare on their own doorsteps.
You regenerate somewhere by making it better, not by making it easier to depart the place.
Oldham is on the way out. The first sign is the lowering in standard of shops - pound shops are taking over. Plenty of empty units too - though cleverly disguised. Outside market now taken over completely by asian stall holders and shoppers. No M & S. The end is nigh for Oldham as we know it.
Now, look at Bury - a fantastic shopping centre, new, vibrant, plenty of choice, outside/inside market, eateries etc etc.
Good bye Oldham.
In fairness to GMPTE this time, the town centre section was always in the plans.
It's still a plan that no-one wanted, needed or asked for but at least they're sticking to it!
Why don't they build the new stadium there rather than in Failsworth
Why kick an oldhamer when he's down when he's busy kicking himself anyway
Gordon Benett what a hopeful lot
Anything would improve that end of Oldham. The long term goal has to be to attract private sector investment to the town, thus creating jobs and prosperity. Metrolink can only be one of a number of initiatives to do that. Without it though, the existing town is dying - let's see what benefits it brings before dismissing it out of hand.
Many others as well as myself ,have made many points already regarding this un needed and financial disaster that is metro link,so tonight I will confine my comments to the scheme itself.
Nothing seems to have been learnt from the faults within the existing system.It is a pure dangerous folly to repeat the mistakes made in Manchester,
.Especially Moseley street dowm to Bridgewater Hall ,where trams and road traffic share the same space.There have been multiple accidents with collisions,trams derailing,overhead cables and track problems etc,these thae affect the ENTIRE system.
Hardly a week never mind a month goes by without severe problems hitting at least a part of the network.Just have a listen sometime to local radio especially the section I mention going out to Eccles etc. From Piccadilly.If anyone can STOP these dual traffic plans before similar problems and injuries are inflicted upon you.
In response to Michael H,a financial disaster is more than just requiring subsidies as you suggest,for anyone can play with figures,it really depends on what one counts in and what one counts out to the equation.
In the case of Metro link it has required a Kings ransom to fund the building of the network,maintenance,relaying of ALL the tracks within central Manchester,due in the main to wrong installation of the foundation of the tracks.Add to thatthe cost of laying on buses to shuttle multitudes of passengers from point a to point B or C etc, whenever a part or all of the system fails to operate,and you are talking millions and millions more.
the cost can be apportioned here and there for payment ,but my point holds valid the overall cost to the taxpayer and council tax payer is enormous..As for when was a tram last derailed well certainly in the last 12-24 months and I think ,but not 100% sure the cause was a bus not a car,but there certainly have been cases of collisions between trams and buses on this stretch.
I can only assume that you work in some way connected to this shocking tram system ,as other than that I have yet to find a member of the public to defend it.As for the cost of fares,are they cheap? I rest my case and over to others.Listen to Radio Manchester sometimes and you will hear not only the complaints from the travelling public,but also the details given out regularly of the services NOT operating normally or indeed at all on various parts of the network.
Michael,I am glad but also quite puzzled,that you say that you are in no way employed by Metrolink,but still choose to defend and support the most inefficient,costly and unreliable transport system within Greater Manchester.
I am pleased that you acknowledge my point about the faulty laying of the tracks in Manchester centre which costs Millions to repair,and the collisions and derailings of the trams within Moseley street/St Peters square area.
However your point of whether it was a bus/car driver or a tram driver is largely not important in as much as if the layout of the tram system had not involved dual traffic systems the accidents would not have occured.Therefore why repeat this failure of system planning in Rochdale and Oldham?
As for the cost of fares,you do quite rightly acknowledge the high cost,but I find your point about the public willing to pay this quite confusing.South Manchester and members of the public travelling into Manchester ,is quite different from the Northern part of the city.
I put it to you(and we will have to wait and see) ,that the situation will not be the same when it applies to Rochdale and Oldham.For a start less people from these areas travel to work in Central Manchester ,than from the South side of the City,but also a tram journey from Rochdale into Manchester,will take LONGER than the current train route ,and maybe bus routes and will cost more. Why? because the tram will have to go on the loop line from rochdale via Oldham to Manchester and will take at least 15 minutes longer than the current train line.
So I repeat on all counts this proposed system is a financial ,practical,total expensive disaster which could even now be scrapped and should be,or do our kids and Grandkids continue to fund this white elephant?
I am a Public Transport student and don't live in England. The constant stream of detractors regarding your tram system absolutely AMAZES me! Do they not realise the benefits which will ultimately flow to your region? Why don't you go to any country in Europe and witness the transformation which has taken place after rebuilding their tram systems. I would agree that Manchester has made several major mistakes since starting the system, when advice from any European city would have prevented that, (is that a typically English failing?),but just be very grateful that your region has been so fortunate to be given so much funding.It says a lot for your representatives at government level. Equally it says a lot for other cities who have not been so fortunate,.
Stop moaning, gentlemen, and I am sure you will enjoy the results.
should have left the bridge there then when a tram came off like in Coronation Street we could have got the builders in to regenerate Mumps for us