London-style system call as mayor reveals train failings
FEWER than half of Greater Manchester’s trains currently arrive on time - and the region’s mayor has now responded by announcing plans to introduce a London-style transport system within a decade.
Andy Burnham wants to see an integrated ticket system, capped, cheaper fares across all modes of transport in the city and more efficient services, all within 10 years.
But he has ruled out raising taxes locally to pay for it.
Shocking figures state that across Greater Manchester only 38 per cent of Transpennine Express trains and only 53 per cent of Northern trains are arriving within one minute of their scheduled arrival times.
Mr Burnham was presenting Transport for Greater Manchester’s plans to overhaul the network and make trains more reliable by 2040.
But the Mayor thinks this could be achieved much faster if Westminster gave Manchester more funding and the power to make local decisions.
He said: “There needs to be a culture change. I don’t believe the network is sufficiently accountable to the travelling public. That cannot continue.
“Radical reform is needed to deliver a London-style network that is reliable, convenient, affordable, sustainable, accessible and accountable.
“The persistently poor performance [of the Greater Manchester transport network] is largely down to infrastructure, but there is also a culture problem and without that accountability, the rail network won’t improve.”
He argued the Government had subsidised London’s transport system for decades and that it was time for Manchester to enjoy the same financial support.
He said: “We wouldn’t be able to fund these ambitions via council tax.
“This is about taking funding from a national level that is used to subsidise the railways and the argument is if [Westminster] gave us that money, we would get much better returns for the Greater Manchester public.”