Bolton: Metrolink plan 'yet to see movement' 4 years on

The then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps pledged in 2019, shortly before the election that year, that if it remained in power his government would be prepared to spend millions on extending the Metrolink to both Bolton and Stockport.

But three-and-a-half years on the town has yet to see progress on extending the tramline, prompting Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi to ask questions in parliament about what was taking so long.

She said: “At the 2019 general election, Grant Shapps descended on Bolton and promised a tram link into Bury via Radcliffe.

Yasmin Qureshi MP has asked why the process has taken so long (Image: Office of Yasmin Qureshi MP)

“Four years on we are yet to see any movement on a plan, let alone a spade in the ground.

“This investment and infrastructure development would spur jobs and growth but all we have seen so far from the government is silence and a lack of intent.

“Bolton deserves better.”

The plans to extend the tram network built upon proposals already set out by Mr Shapps’ predecessor, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, and by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham in January 2019.

The cash to do so was to have come from a new, devolved £4.2bn long-term Local Public Transport Fund to be allocated to the eight city regions including Greater Manchester.

Mr Grayling and Mr Burnham both said at the time that they hoped to see both Bolton and Stockport connected by new tramlines within three years.

This came after years of lobbying to lengthen the tramlines since there foundation all the way back in 1992.

But Ms Qureshi, who tabled her question to the Department for Transport on how progress was going last month but says she has not felt encouraged by the answer she has received.

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In response to the question put by the Bolton MP, the government has said that it has awarded £50,000 of Restoring Your Railway Ideas funding to Transport for Greater Manchester for this purpose.

Officials say that this funding is intended to be used to develop a strategic outline business case to reinstate passenger services on the Bolton-Radcliffe/Bolton-Bury line.

They added that the outline business case is currently being considered by the Department for Transport.