Transport budget briefing on opportunities and challenges for the year ahead

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A budget briefing setting out the city region’s transport spending plans for 2016/17 is set to take place at Manchester Town Hall.

The Transport for Greater Manchester Committee (TfGMC) will be holding its annual budget briefing in Manchester Town Hall’s Banqueting Room on Tuesday 23 February, between 11.00am and 1.00pm.

Greater Manchester residents and stakeholders are welcome to attend the public meeting, where leading councillors and directors from TfGM will present the budget for the next financial year and also take part in a question and answer session.

The briefing will be hosted by Councillor Andrew Fender, Chairman of TfGMC. He said: “Greater Manchester’s economy is now the fastest growing in the UK outside London and transport has a crucial role to play in supporting and sustaining that growth.

“We’ve achieved a huge amount in recent years and we continue to deliver a programme of investment of over £2 billion in transport infrastructure and services for Greater Manchester. This represents the biggest single investment in transport schemes outside London.

“As a local government body, we are acutely aware of the need to make prudent decisions and ongoing cost savings. However, it is also vital to deliver the much needed improvements in transport infrastructure and services that the whole city region needs.

“We’d welcome anyone who wants to learn more about the opportunities and challenges we face in the year ahead to come along to the budget briefing to find out more.”

The £1.5 billion Greater Manchester Transport Fund was established in May 2009 to pay for major transport schemes, including the Metrolink expansion programme, bus priority projects, park and ride and new transport interchanges.

In addition to this, Greater Manchester’s wider Growth Deal package is seeing more than £350 million invested in 12 major transport schemes between 2015/16 and 2020/21, including new transport interchanges, new roads, new bus priority measures and more trams for Metrolink.

To ensure TfGM continues to make travel easier, transport spending in Greater Manchester focuses on supporting national and local concessionary travel schemes, funding the provision of socially necessary bus services, providing improved passenger services and facilities and other transport related activities, including the operation, maintenance and installation of the traffic signal network in Greater Manchester.

TfGMC is a Joint Committee of the Combined Authority and the ten district authorities of Greater Manchester. It oversees the work of TfGM, monitors the performance of transport services, scrutinises the delivery of transport capital projects, and advises the Combined Authority on transport policy.

To attend the briefing, please email budgetupdate@tfgm.com or telephone 0161 244 1000.

Registration will take place from 10.30am to 11.00am with refreshments available on arrival.