We’re integrating local rail services and stations into the Bee Network over the coming years, while shaping how rail will develop as part of its long-term future.
Current challenges with rail
Greater Manchester’s rail network covers over 318km, across 96 stations and delivers over 40 million passenger trips into Manchester’s central stations.
However, the current system faces significant challenges:
- limited local influence and accountability,
- many inaccessible stations,
- crowded services, and
- issues with reliability.
We’ve worked with the rail industry to develop a new vision for what rail could look like in Greater Manchester by 2050. We want to see a reliable rail network that works for everybody, from residents and communities to businesses and visitors. So that our city region can keep on growing and benefiting us all.
Our ambition
The plan sets out ambitions for:
- New connections: Several new stations, including Golborne and Cheadle, will add 30,000 people to the network.
- Service improvements: Introducing additional services, increasing frequency and improving performance to deliver metro-style rail.
- Expansion: Metrolink to every borough, with tram and tram-train services.
- Accessibility: By 2040, half of all stations will be upgraded for step-free access.
- Modern rolling stock: By early 2030, new rolling stock on Northern and TransPennine routes, with up to 480 new carriages in operation. Plus a next-generation Metrolink fleet with tram-train capability.
- Regeneration and growth: Plans include up to 75,000 new homes near the rail network and major regeneration at Old Trafford.
- Manchester Piccadilly transformation: A new underground station by 2050 will allow for increased capacity, supporting 40,000 new jobs, 13,000 homes, and nearly a million square feet of new commercial space.
Roadmap to 2050
Our long-term vision cannot be realised overnight. Our Roadmap to 2050 sets out how, by working in partnership, we will transform rail travel across Greater Manchester.
This vision is about much more than major rail infrastructure projects. It’s about transforming how rail is planned, delivered, and operated – so it works for peoples and places at the heart of a joined-up Bee Network.
Read the 2050 vision for the future of rail in Greater Manchester.