UK: Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for powers to take over and regenerate disused railway land and derelict station buildings.
In 2017 the Department for Transport rejected a request for Transport for Greater Manchester to take control of local stations. ‘That was [then Secretary of State for Transport] Chris Grayling on typical form, not seeing the bigger picture’, Burnham told Rail Business UK on May 12.
However with routes serving 64 stations across Greater Manchester stations planned to join the region’s multimodal Bee Network by 2028 and the remaining 32 stations in the area by 2030, Burnham is trying again.
Ahead of the upcoming spending review, TfGM has explained to the government that as well as station improvements there would be the possibility of making more productive use of railway land.
‘If I look at Stalybridge, Ashton-under-Lyne, Castleton or Wigan Wallgate, I see stations that could see transport-led regeneration, where you can build homes around those places and then take some of the uplift and the planning gain to invest in the station’, said Burnham. ‘That would be a win-win for communities and the rail industry, and that is a big part of the case that I’m putting to the government at this spending review’
Burnham said Irlam was a good example of a station building that had been successfully regenerated; after lying derelict for nearly 25 years it was renovated by the Hamilton Davies Trust in 2015 as a railway-themed bar and restaurant.
It is now ‘people’s local wine bar’, he explained. ’It is people’s meet-up point; there are community events here, even weddings. Our rail infrastructure can be so much more, it’s what rail enables. We lost that thinking somewhere down the line, and finally it’s coming back, to open up these amazing community assets for everybody to use.’
