Three new railway stations mooted for Rochdale in bid to boost public transport links

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Three new railway stations have been mooted for Rochdale in a bid to improve the borough's links with Manchester and the wider city region.

While residents can hop on a train in Rochdale and be in the city centre within 15 minutes, there are concerns other parts of the borough are less well served.

Now councillors have back a motion to ‘investigate’ a proposal for a trio of new stations in outlying areas, providing ‘cleaner, cheaper and faster’ public transport. The proposed three stations are: Councillor John Blundell, who tabled the motion, said it was ‘quite clear one of the main concerns of people in peripheral parts of Rochdale is connectivity to Manchester and the wider conurbation’. “The borough needs better connectivity and this Labour council want to commit to introducing rail connectivity to areas where access to the wider conurbation is the poorest,” he told the meeting. "In Rochdale, with the rail corridor strategy we have proved we will use our stations to their full effect. "Investment in these areas would not go to waste and it would significantly improve opportunities for residents in those areas for accessing jobs, culture or amenities in both Manchester and Leeds.

The motion was backed by council leader Neil Emmott, who said he had been in discussions with ELR since last summer, to look at bringing back regular passenger services to Heywood for the first time since 1969." Coun Emmott said there had been a ‘pretty warm response’ from the heritage railway, as well as Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. “I think it would be fantastic for us to have those rail links again - proper rail links from Heywood to Manchester and Heywood to Bury on a regular basis,” he said. “And obviously we will still