David Ottewell has posted some interesting information about motorway congestion in Greater Manchester and the wider northern region. It makes the unsurprising assertion that the stretch of the M60 around Junction 13 in Worsley is the busiest in the entire region.
The report, by the Northern Way, makes some suggestions for improvement, including car sharing and more flexible working hours, but has anyone asked what the likely effect of the Congestion Charge will be on our orbital motorway?
A large proportion of traffic on the M60 is “passing through” and isn’t heading into Greater Manchester at all. By making the outer ring of the congestion charging zone follow the route of the M60, aren’t we actually likely to force more local traffic onto the motorway to avoid paying the charge? Are we setting the M60 up to be a giant rat-run when it is already stretched to capacity?
The TIF bid of course does not really take into account the regional and national travel patterns that take our local motorways over capacity. Perhaps it’s time to bring forward discussion on our regional and national transport infrastructure, starting with the excellent Conservative proposal to introduce high-speed rail to Manchester.
Incidentally, doesn’t “orbital motorway” sound much better than “ring road”?
High speed rail is a welcome proposal – Labour alas is stuck in the past on this issue.
ICE or TGV-style high speed passenger services are the only sensible way forward for the North West’s beleaguered business travellers. A very important point which should be remembered is that the design operating speed of the existing Class 390 Pendolino fleet is 140 mph, and not the 125 mph currently in use. Labour screwed us out of PUG2 (Passenger Upgrade 2), by telling us it was far too expensive to implement. PUG2 would have provided the signalling and automatic train protection for the Pendos to safely operate as they were designed to.
Come to think of it, Labour have “form” for screwing over and hoodwinking public transport users in Greater Manchester, remember the much vaunted Metrolink “Big Bang”? That went the same way as PUG2 did, rejected as being too expensive. The best thing any right-minded resident could do would be to vote AGAINST the Congestion Charge. Let us not forget Labour’s own division on that very issue, Sir Richard Leese is in favour whilst his predecessor Graham Stringer MP says “No Way.” A case of divided we stand if ever one was evident.