SAVE THE OLDHAM LOOP

may 2005 :: RMTnews 17 FOR MANY years railways and tramways operated happily side by side. However, in the middle of the last century, tramways in our towns and cities were dismantled, with only the Blackpool tramway remaining. That was until a new generation of tramways came along with names like Supertram, Tramlink and Metrolink. In greater Manchester, Metrolink won widespread support and a campaign was launched for the system to be expanded. Part of this ‘phase three’ expansion takes in the heavy rail route known as the Oldham loop, running from Manchester to Rochdale. This route forms the bulk of work at Manchester Victoria depot as well as Wigan Wallgate. It is true that the route is in need of investment. But that can be said for whole swathes of the rail network. Moreover, a lot of the problems on the Oldham loop come about as a direct result of the uncertainty surrounding the route. Now, no RMT member is going to argue against more public transport. However, converting the Oldham loop to light rail would not provide additional public transport. It would simply replace one mode of transport with another. Furthermore, an objective look at the options available reveals that there are few benefits for conversion. In fact, less money would be better spent on improving existing rail infrastructure, rather than wasting millions on chucking trains off the loop and replacing them with trams. Metrolink is essentially two very good former rail routes with a bit of on-street running linking the two. The Bury and Altrincham lines were regarded as good paying routes, with trains regularly full of passengers. Both were snatched from British Rail in 1989 and turned into the separate privatised edifice called Metrolink. Since then, very little has been spent on infrastructure and the system is showing signs of age. It is estimated that it will cost around £100 million to bring the infrastructure back to 1990 standards. This is money they have not got, yet they want to take more railway. The powers that be are desperate for the expanded route. In 2002, when the closure of the Oldham Loop was granted, a document supporting conversion claimed that journey times on trams would be far quicker than trains and there was far more capacity. However, these figures were somewhat distorted. The rail capacity comparison was only for a single 142 set and did not consider the 130 per cent figure of seating capacity, a figure that is routinely broken. The tram capacity figure was for a seating and standing capacity of four persons per square metre of floor space. This translates to 25 square centimetres per passenger, probably less as the seats are larger. Despite these distorted figures, the money needed to build the extensions has not been forthcoming and there is a local campaign called ‘Get our Metrolink back on track’. The company even re-liveried one of the trams with a huge logo carrying this message. Ironically, that tram derailed in the city centre on old and shoddy ‘phase one’ track. With a closure order granted on the Oldham Loop, the route is living on borrowed time. A pre-Metrolink timetable of only two trains an hour from Victoria to Rochdale, stopping at all stations, has led to passenger numbers dropping like stone. The service is due to revert to the faster four trains per hour in each direction when the summer timetable comes into force, with through trains to Wigan and Merseyside also returning. Hopefully, passengers will return as well but how long will the service remain? What is clearly required is an end to the uncertainty once and for all and for the closure order to be repealed. The Oldham Loop could become part of an integrated transport network which utilises the present infrastructure and provides a decent rail service. Train crew conference delegate Alex Holden outlines the case against handing the Oldham loop line over to tram privateers SAVE THE OLDHAM LOOP RAIL ROUTE!