Politicians welcome bus station green light

Date published: 27/03/2008

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has spoken of his delight after the Government finally gave the green light to a new Bus Station in Rochdale. Mr Rowen said:, “Our new Bus Station is central to our plans to regenerate our Town and I have been lobbying the Department of Transport hard for some time to deliver this project. I spoke to Transport Minister Rose Winterton MP last week who confirmed that an announcement was imminent and I am pleased to see confirmation of that. Plans were drawn up for our new station when I was Council Leader in 2004 and I am pleased to see a successful conclusion to our campaign. The next step is obviously to get the Government to commit to funding the extension of Metrolink from our railway station to our Town Centre. Only then will we have the integrated transport system that has long been my ambition for Rochdale.”

Rochdale’s Labour Group leader also welcomed the announcement. Councillor Allen Brett said: “I’m delighted that we will have a modern, hugely improved bus station coming to Rochdale and when this is combined with the Metrolink tram system we will have laid down a vital transport framework for regenerating our town.

“Rochdale needs to be better networked and I’m delighted to see a strong, new transport infrastructure emerging. From this April pensioners will have free bus travel across England and I’m really pleased that pensioners in Rochdale will get the benefits of a brand new bus station too.”

Council Leader Alan Taylor said: “This is a significant announcement and good news for every user of public transport in our Town. I would like to thank our MP Paul Rowen for his hard work on this. These are exciting times for our Town and with the multi-million pound regeneration of our Town Centre – this is another piece in our ambitious plans. Rochdale is on the way up and this announcement is confirmation of that.”

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, added that better transport links were vital to ensure that Rochdale was able to share in the regeneration success of Manchester.

“Recent research shows that poor commuter transport networks are preventing towns like Rochdale from enjoying the new-found wealth in Manchester from spilling over into our Borough,” he explained. “There is a much bigger exchange of commuters between similar sized towns in the South East and London and we need to strengthen our transport links with cities like Manchester to build our economy.”