Alongside the GMSF, Greater Manchester has also set out a draft ‘Transport Delivery Plan’ – for 2020-25 – which sets out what is planned in terms of transport infrastructure.

This is divided into:
Things that are actually going to happen in the next 5 years
In Bury the only significant thing is some extra double trams (the ones that had already been announced). The biggest thing in the rest of Greater Manchester is the Metrolink line to the Trafford Centre which is currently being built (trams at the northern end will terminate at Crumpsall).

Things that they plan to develop business cases for in the next five years, for early delivery
In Bury the main things are a new tram station and link road at Elton Reservoir (to serve the new houses that the GMSF proposes there) and ‘Improvements at Simister Island (no information at all about what this means at this stage.)

Things that they plan to develop options for the future on
In Bury this is mainly a new motorway junction at Birch services, with roads linking this north and south (presumably to serve the ‘Northern Gateway’ site of new houses and industrial development) and a Bury to Rochdale tram line!

It is right that the plan is ambitious, but without proper funding these are just lines on a map!

Please let us know what you think so we can feed into the discussions on this draft document. The full report is here.