Posted 25th May 2023 | 4 Comments

New funding for Manchester railways

Grant ++ Rail minister Huw Merriman has announced a grant of £72 million to improve railways in north west England. He revealed the new funding during a visit to Manchester Victoria. The money will pay for a third platform at Salford Crescent, track improvements in north Manchester, and extra entrances and exits at Manchester Victoria, which is Manchester’s second largest station and also provides a direct interchange with trams to the city centre, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale.

Scooters ++ Nearly all National Rail operators are banning e-scooters on their services, on the grounds that the batteries can catch fire. Greater Anglia head of safety, security and sustainability Matt Wakefield said: ‘We know that e-scooters have battery packs which vary greatly in quality. The decision has therefore been made to ban these items due to recent incidents elsewhere and the risks associated with them using faulty lithium batteries and catching fire.’

Reality plus ++ Transport for Wales has installed augmented reality maps of its six largest stations, to help passengers who are less confident about using trains. The new information is now available for Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street, Newport, Chester, Shrewsbury and Pontypridd.

Reader Comments:

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  • dave barry, Wallasey

    reality maps sound useless to me. the answer is to restore printed material timetables both in the form of booklets and departure sheets on concourses. Only really stupid organisations don't tell people what their services are in the clearest possible way. journey planners are hopeless for complex and variable journey to be negotiated..

  • Greg T, London

    But nothing for the desperately-needed extra two southside platforms at "Piccadilly" - that would be far too sensible, wouldn't it?

  • Chris Jones-Bridger, Buckley Flintshire

    Nice to see Greater Manchester getting some small change to address capacity around Salford Cresent & Manchester Victoria. However the outstanding challenge of the Castlefield corridor remains. Unfortunately as a solution is both a) costly & b) disruptive it's left in the too difficult file. The completion of the Ordsall curve was meant to open up new journey opportunities across the North of England network. However after the timetabling meltdown the drastic fix has left it as an under utilised asset. Surely it's about time ro bite the bullet and find a solution?

  • david C Smith, Bletchley

    Interesting - i'm pleased that money is being given to local enterprise that is probably more aware of local transport needs and costs , which the people in Whitehall aren't able to be. I'd hope that the" city regions" could deal with transport investment policy each headed by a directly elected Transport Commissioner.

    Whilst still "at it", is there any news re. possible extra platforms at Salford Central, to give service to the Chat Moss line, to add to the ex L&Y platforms to Bolton and Wigan ?