Bringing trams to Middleton and Heywood "could fix years of chronic underinvestment" says council leader

The Metrolink could come to Middleton and Heywood if the latest plans from transport bosses come to fruition.

The leader of Rochdale Council has welcomed this latest proposal, which would prove ‘vital’ in matching the borough’s growth plans. This would be a major boost for the Atom Valley project, Councillor Neil Emmott claimed – which is a strategy to bring 1.6m sq m of new employment space, create around 20,000 jobs and deliver 7,000 new homes across Rochdale, Bury and Oldham.

The centre of this Mayoral Development Zone would be Middleton, which currently suffers from poor transport connectivity just like neighbouring Heywood.

Both areas form part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) plans for Metrolink extension mentioned at their last meeting on 12 July – dubbed ‘The Rapid Transit Strategy’. These options include the introduction of tram-train services to join up the light and heavy rail networks, and potential major new tunnelled capacity.

The railway line through Rochdale is also included in the list of eight railway corridors to be integrated into the Bee Network transport system by 2028.

Councillor Neil Emmott, leader of Rochdale Borough Council, said: “I’m delighted to see the mayor prioritising this investment into Heywood and Middleton; two very important areas which have suffered from chronic underinvestment in their public transport infrastructure for a number of years.

“Boroughs like Rochdale, in the north of Greater Manchester, still don’t enjoy the same level of economic prosperity as those in the south of the conurbation, and substantially better public transport infrastructure will go a long way towards addressing this imbalance.

“The need to accelerate this transport revolution is even more acute now, given the development of Atom Valley, the largest growth opportunity in Greater Manchester. This transformative project to bring millions of pounds of investment and thousands of advanced manufacturing jobs into the borough will only increase the strategic importance of areas like Heywood and Middleton to the economy of the wider region and the country as a whole.

“That’s why it’s vital that we have world class transport infrastructure to match our world class ambitions for growth.”

The GM mayor told council bosses at the latest GMCA meeting that on top of the Metrolink expansion, the eight rail networks they aim to bring into the Bee Network would ‘essentially double’ the Metrolink to the area. This is a manifesto pledge which the mayoral team believe can be achieved within the next four years.

Speaking at the GMCA meeting on 12 July, Andy Burnham said: “We know there are a lot of places in Greater Manchester that don’t yet have the Metrolink and still haven’t got regulated bus services and are patiently waiting for change. That change needs to come.

“So the Rapid Transit Strategy going forward becomes really important in this context. What we’ve had to do is look through our ambitions and sift the schemes we have because we can’t pay for everything at this moment in time.

“We have to be realistic about the ones we can take forward and 15 have been identified as the ones with the potential to take forward in this period.

“Coming north of the city-region and looking at our ambitions for Atom Valley, looking at Middleton, as the leader of Rochdale Council has asked us to do, and Heywood as two places that need that enhanced connectivity.”

George Lythgoe, local democracy reporter