Transport cuts fuel railway call

Labour MP Graham Stringer is calling on the Government to scrap London’s £16bn Crossrail project and spend the money on Greater Manchester’s rail system instead.

Public transport faces cuts of up to 30% as the Government pays back what it borrowed to beat the recession.

Mr Stringer, a member of the Commons Transport Committee, claimed transport spending in London last year was £826 per head compared with £309 in the North West.

He told a packed conference at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall: “When you look at where that money is going, the cuts will not be 30%, they will be significantly more.”

Because of Greater Manchester’s Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) referendum last December, he said, the area probably has the “most transport sensitized electorate in the country”, which understands the issues. “They are saying that London can’t have everything and the answer is brutal — stop Crossrail and spend the money on the pinch points in the Manchester rail system — which affect the whole of the North — and on starting to build the high-speed rail network.”

Asked whether the threatened cuts would reign in Greater Manchester’s £1.5bn “Plan B” of Metrolink extensions — including the extension to Rochdale — he replied: “Contracts will be signed and the money will be spent.”