Clean Air Plan conversation

In mid-May we will be launching a public conversation to give Greater Manchester’s residents, businesses, organisations, interest groups and politicians the chance to have their say on how they think the city-region should tackle air pollution.

Local Industrial Strategy

We will be working with the GMCA to ensure transport is an essential element of their Local Industrial Strategy. We will also ensure that our Delivery Plan reflects and aligns with the findings of the Strategy.

Wayfinding

To help people find their way around Manchester city centre we will be installing 29 signs between Piccadilly and Victoria stations. They will provide a clear route between the stations as well as directions to important shopping and cultural destinations.

Contactless

In the summer we will be introducing contactless payment on Metrolink. It will allow passengers to quickly and easily pay for their journeys with their bank cards or any other payment enabled device, such as phones and watches, with the system automatically working out their cheapest daily fare.

Dynamic Working

We are introducing dynamic working across the organisation to enable our staff to work more efficiently and effectively, whatever their location. Flexible working and helping more staff work from home is key to tackling congestion across the city-region and TfGM is keen to establish itself as a leading organisation in this area.

Clean Air Week 2019

In June we will be running Clean Air Week to help raise awareness of air pollution and the changes people can make to help contribute to cleaner air. We will be running events across all Greater Manchester’s local authorities and this year’s focus will be on promoting walking and cycling for shorter journeys.

Greater Manchester Rail Prospectus

In the autumn we will be publishing the Greater Manchester Rail Prospectus, which sets out our rail ambitions – both for the rail network and Metrolink – for the city-region. It will set out how rail can support a strong and sustainable economy; the short and long-term infrastructure improvements we will need, how it can be integrated with other modes of transport such as bus, walking and cycling, and reflect the findings of the Williams Review on the national rail network.

City Centre Transport Strategy Consultation

This year we are developing the City Centre Transport Strategy on behalf of Manchester and Salford City Councils. It will provide a 20 year framework for the investment and management of the cities’ streets and transport networks.

A formal consultation will be held towards the end of summer 2019, which will gather feedback on the draft strategy and potential projects. It is then anticipated that the full strategy will be published next year.

Potential Bus Reform Consultation

In 2017 Mayoral authorities like Greater Manchester were given powers to improve bus services by reforming their bus markets. This could include franchising - the system used in London and other cities around the world – or various forms of partnerships.

We are currently preparing an assessment of these options. Once this report has been completed and audited the GMCA may decide to proceed to a public consultation, which will take place later in the year.

Clean Air Plan Consultation

Following the public listening exercise in May, Greater Manchester will hold a statutory consultation, which will give another opportunity for people and organisations across the city-region to feedback and help shape the proposals.

These will then be resubmitted to the local authorities for consideration and approval. The final business case will then be presented by the end of 2019.

Local Full Fibre Network

This year, thanks to Local Full Fibre Networks funding, Greater Manchester will be procuring full fibre coverage for public sector organisations across the city-region, including TfGM.

This will include our assets like traffic signals, pedestrian crossings, message signs and CCTV. Full fibre connection will enable dynamic management of the network and faster response times to incidents and traffic management, as well as opening opportunities for future innovation.

Our Pass

In the summer we will be supporting the launch of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s Our Pass, which will give 16 to 18-year-olds free bus travel across the city-region, as well as discounted access to cultural and leisure venues.

The Pass will enable young people to access education, explore the city-region and encourage them to become regular users of Greater Manchester's bus network.

Delivery Plan Publication

In January 2019 we published our draft Delivery Plan, which sets out all the transport projects and polices we are working on over the next five years. Over the next twelve months we will be consulting with key organisations and updating the Plan with the latest modelling before publishing the final document at the end of the year.

Self-driving car trial

In partnership with Stockport and Manchester Councils and Westfield Technology Group, in December we will be trialling self-driving electric cars, which will travel in a convoy between Stockport station and Manchester Airport. We will also be trialling three fully autonomous cars, which will ferry passengers across Manchester Airport. The trial will measure people’s attitudes and perceptions of the technology and explore how it can help tackle issues such as congestion.

Asset Management System

We own and manage a diverse and complex range of assets that are vital in our mission to keep Greater Manchester moving. This include everything from our trams and interchanges to our TravelShops and our digital systems. These assets need to be maintained, replaced and adapted to help keep travel disruption to a minimum and safeguard the welfare of our customers, staff, contractors and the general public.

In 2020 we will be procuring and implementing a new Asset Management Information System so that we can oversee our assets more intelligently and efficiently, ensuring we are maximising their value and minimising risk.

Delivery of the first of the new trams

From spring 2020 the first new trams will begin running on the network, providing more capacity and enabling even more people to use Metrolink to get around the city-region.

The other trams will be delivered on a monthly basis, through to summer 2021, ultimately providing 15% more capacity on the network.

Ashton Interchange

In spring 2020 we will be opening our latest transport interchange in Ashton. Built on the site of the existing bus station it will allow passengers to easily change between different modes of transport, including bus, Metrolink, rail, walking and cycling in a modern, attractive and secure environment.

Streets for All

Early next year we will be launching Streets for All, a new way of thinking about how streets can create sustainable, healthy and resilient neighbourhoods.

The approach balances streets’ traditional primary role, as routes for vehicles, alongside the creation of more high-quality attractive and people-friendly places, where people will want to spend their time.

Expanding Park & Ride

Park and Ride helps cut congestion by enabling commuters with the option to make part of their journey by car and the remainder by public transport, or another sustainable mode of travel.

TfGM owns a number of Park and Ride sites across the city-region, which are are conveniently situated close to bus, rail and Metrolink interchanges which makes using them quick, easy and importantly, accessible.

To encourage more people not to drive into heavily congested city centres, we are actively exploring suitable locations for a number of new sites across Greater Manchester

Digital Services

To make travelling in Greater Manchester as simple, stress free and accessible as possible we will be exploring how we can better use the data we gather to improve passengers’ journeys. This will include enhancing our digital customer information, journey planning, customer queries and the sharing of travel information through open data.

This should help people make better travel choices, minimise disruption, reduce congestion and cuts costs in areas such as printed information.

Flexible Working

As part of the Greater Manchester Congestion Deal, TfGM are working alongside partners like the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce to encourage businesses and organisations across the city-region to explore flexible working.

Congestion costs our city-region around £1.3 billion every year and a large cause is people travelling to and from work at the same time. Flexible working will help cut the number of cars on our roads as well as providing other benefits for staff, including better work-life balance and improved morale.

The Bee Network

Since the launch of The Bee Network 42 schemes across all ten Greater Manchester local authorities have been announced, with a total value of £204 million. This puts the city-region's spend on walking and cycling at £18 per head, one of the highest levels in the UK.

Further schemes will be announced this year and a second draft of the Bee Network map, taking into account the 4,000 resident comments received, will be published. We will also make progress on our plans to deliver a GM-wide bike hire scheme.