CITY CENTRE ROADWORKS CAUSING CHAOS
AS THE UNITED TEAM BUS GETS STUCK AGAIN, ONE DRIVER SAYS IT TOOK HIM THREE HOURS TO REACH OLD TRAFFORD FROM VICTORIA
UNITED fans are demanding answers after city centre traffic caused prematch chaos – with one coach driver reporting a THREE-HOUR journey from Victoria station to Old Trafford.
Drivers battling their way through the city centre were faced with huge queues and congestion ahead of the Redsclash with Juventus on Tuesday.
The gridlock – made worse by the wide-ranging Regent Road works – also delayed the United team bus for the second time this month, despite efforts to shorten the players’ journey by having them stay at the Hilton Garden hotel at Lancashire Cricket Club instead of The Lowry.
The Reds were supposed to get their game underway at 8pm but it was pushed back five minutes because the team bus arrived at Old Trafford just 43 minutes before kick-off.
Amid reports manager Jose Mourinho ended up walking the last halfmile to the stadium, it’s raised serious questions over city-centre traffic management after United were fined £13,000 when the team bus was a late show for the Champions League game with Valenica earlier this month.
And the team’s pain was echoed in the fans’ experience, as congestion on Regent Road, Albion Way, Chapel Street, Chester Road, Trafford Road and Trinity Way sparked unwelcome pre-match drama.
Among them was Chris Painter, who runs Mastonian Coaches and picked up a corporate group from the Travel lodge at the back of Victoria Station at 5.30pm. But he says he didn’t arrive at Old Trafford until 8.10pm – 10 minutes after the match was due to start.
He said: “Some of my customers ended up walking. We were at a standstill. Those who could, walked all the way from town we were stuck so long. But those wearing heels couldn’t.”
Chris says he turned left on to the end of Deansgate, travelled down to Blackfriars Road and then turned back up Deansgate because there’s no right turn.
He added: “It’s because of the Regent Road works. This is the worst I’ve ever seen Manchester and we’ve been operating coaches since 1960 when my father started.
T”here was no reason to have cones on Chester Road and Regent Road – there were no workers, no holes in the ground, no machinery inside the cones. They could have been removed to alleviate traffic.”
Chris, from Moston, whose firm is based in Chadderton, Oldham, said he phoned Transport for Greater Manchester to complain but ‘nobody seemed interested.’
Manchester council announced before the match how the Regent Road works – originally due to last a year – had been reduced by ‘at least a month.’
A spokesman for the Manchester Salford Inner Relief Route works, which are being jointly carried out by Manchester and Salford councils, said: “These major works will significantly improve traffic flow on this busy route once they have finished by increasing capacity at key junctions by up to 20 per cent.
“Unfortunately, there is no way to deliver these long-term improvements without some degree of short-time disruption and we recognise that is frustrating.
But without these works, the road would become more clogged longterm and people would end up spending more time stuck in queues.”