GMITA calls on government for more train carriages

Date published: 12 February 2010

Greater Manchester’s transport leaders are calling on the Department for Transport to honour its commitment to provide more railway carriages for the region.

Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) says that the extra carriages are vital to ease over-crowding and cope with ever-growing demand for commuter rail services in the region.

The DfT’s original proposals included 1,300 new carriages for the national rail network, including 182 for Northern Rail services and 42 for TransPennine Express services, both of which serve Greater Manchester. These were promised for delivery between March 2009 and 2014.

However, the DfT cut Northern’s allocation last year by around half, and has not confirmed how many vehicles will be received by TransPennine.

In July the government announced the electrification of parts of the rail network and promised that electric carriages would be provided in the future. This work is not scheduled to begin until 2013 and will not be complete till around 2017. There was no commitment to providing additional rolling stock in the meantime.

A cross-party delegation of leading GMITA members and Greater Manchester MPs are to meet the Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis, on 24 February to make the case for the government to provide the carriages as originally promised.

Councillor Keith Whitmore, Chair of GMITA, said: “Despite the recent recession, passenger numbers are still increasing on our rail network, and there is undoubtedly potential for much greater growth. If we are to see the region continue to grow as a centre for business, leisure and tourism, we must secure a commitment from central government to provide us with the diesel carriages we so desperately need.

“While we welcome the move towards electrification, that alone will simply not be enough to meet future demand for rail services in Greater Manchester – and it will also be several years in the making. Extra capacity in the form of new carriages is already overdue - our rail passengers need a solution now.”

Councillor Ian Macdonald, Vice Chair of GMITA, said: “We believe that the changes in the DfT’s proposals, which have slashed the number of carriages allocated to Northern by almost half, were based on a considerable under-estimation of growth in rail travel.

“The DfT still proposes to provide 1,300 carriages nationwide, so we don’t believe that budgetary constraints can be behind the cut. We want to know why Northern’s allocation has been reduced given that we’ve seen almost 70 per cent growth in patronage on our rail services in the past 10 years.

“The carriages that are intended for Greater Manchester will be older, refurbished stock, largely from London’s Thameslink network, where trains are due to be replaced with new vehicles – so any delay in the replacement project at Thameslink will have a knock-on effect on Manchester.

“We will continue to press for the original commitment to provide 182 Northern carriages to be honoured, which will ease overcrowding on many of our diesel-operated lines – some of the region’s busiest commuter routes.”