Government cuts to Northern transport endangers Cheadle & Gatley tram/train

by Lib Dem team on 1 August, 2017

For years the Lib Dem team have been campaigning to bring a train or tram/train service to Cheadle. We think the best chance is to get tram/train on the Mid-Cheshire line that runs from Stockport through Cheadle and Gatley to Baguley and Altrincham.

We’ve spoken to Government ministers and senior civil servants. We’ve worked with TfGM to make sure the plans are included in their 2040 Vision. We’ve ensured that the new Stockport Transport Interchange, due to start construction in the next few months, will be “tram-ready”. We’ve made sure that there’s space reserved for a halt behind the old Travis Perkins in Cheadle, as that’s one of the likely location.

The biggest challenge is money.  As always.

We believe an orbital tram train line going across the south of Greater Manchester, linking up Tameside, Stockport, Altrincham and the Airport is important for the area’s economy, as well as giving new rail access to Cheadle and Gatley.

That’s why the Government’s announcements recently are so disappointing. The Conservatives have announced that, while they are happy to fund Crossrail 2 (which will cost around £30 billion) they are scrapping plans for electrification of rail lines outside London and the South East.

While our project isn’t one of the ones that’s been cut, ours is further down the line (if you’ll pardon the pun). So by scrapping higher-priority projects, it makes it less likely that tram/train for Cheadle and Gatley will happen.

This is where we need an MP who will fight for our area and champion the call for a new railway line. Sadly, we have not seen our MP say anything critical at all about the Government’s decision.

The Lib Dems will carry on the fight. We know that for this to happen we not only have to make the case – as we are doing – but we also need properly funded transport for the North.

   9 Comments

9 Responses

  1. Alan says:

    It would be good if we had someone respond on here who voted for her and to say whether they’re pleased with her performance because no one appears to be happy with her.

    • Bruce says:

      Alan

      I voted for her and will do again next time – whenever that is. Overall she seems to be a good MP and if you really want to know what she does I suggest you go on to her web site and look for yourself. Incidentally nearly 25000 residents voted for her last time and the one thing I have noticed about her is that she never openly criticises her political opponents – something you cannot say about Iain and Mark Hunter. If you believed everything they wrote about her you would think that she is absolutely useless and a complete waste of space. At least she didn’t increase vat and treble tuition fees as did Mark Hunter – now a four time loser.
      And have you read the latest outpourings from septuagenarian Vince Cable>? He thinks (and do you Iain?) that I am a ‘Brexit jihadi’ as I am over seventy, voted to leave and shouldn’t have had a vote:-
      This is what he said:-
      The old have comprehensively shafted the young. And the old have had the last word about Brexit, imposing a worldview coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past on a younger generation much more comfortable with modern Europe,” he said.

      Hang on though – how old is he? Using his logic why is he leader of a party? Probably the answer is that he is right and I (and all others who voted to leave) are wrong – typical Libdem propaganda! So much for Libdem democracy!

      Remember he wanted us to join the Euro – so much for his financial acumen!

      • Harry Bull says:

        Alf, how right you are! and I suspect we’re not the only constituency by a long chalk to have suffered a similar political fate!!

  2. Alf says:

    Oh really! Yes Mary Robinson does not appear to fight our corner. But neither has any MP in the last 50 years fought for our constituency or the north west as a whole. They’ve been happy enough to get voted in and clear off and put their troughs in in London. If you accept that when half the electorate voted for Brexit they weren’t all small minded bigots as per the Liberal stance then politicians have learnt nothing from a large protest vote by a populace left behind in terms of investment and job opportunities.

  3. JB says:

    Well the tram-train idea would have been a costly waste of money anyway, hopefully now binned for good.

    All we need is a re-instated station at Cheadle (and possibly others on the line to Altrincham) so that residents can access the trains already running to Manchester, Stockport, Chester and elsewhere.

    If a local orbital route really is in demand, the possibility already exists using the local line to Stalybridge for some of the trains from Chester.

  4. Richard says:

    Why then are you going ahead with the tram ready interchange,why don’t you go along with what the majority of people seem to want and reopen the station at Cheadle and use existing line and rolling stock?

  5. Jill Robertson says:

    Same old story, Cheadle always at the back of the queue.

  6. Kerry Armitage says:

    Yes Iain ‘JUST CHEADLE’ … not sure if you have noticed but pretty much all other similar sized Greater Manchester village suburbs have decent public transport links, either a train station or recently constructed tram link – Cheadle has no tram stop, it was the council who supported the railway closure in the village in the 60’s (when other village centres kept theirs) and the bus service that serves Cheadle is appalling.

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