Andy Burnham has written to Network Rail seeking answers to the chaos at Manchester Piccadilly after damage to overhead wires led to train cancellation over 48 hours
The Mayor said
“you will fully appreciate how frustrated I am that this severe rail disruption is occurring on an extremely busy weekend for leisure events in the city, not least the Manchester Marathon and Manchester City versus Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday 19 April. As such, the timing and delay to the repairs is extremely concerning.”
Burnham added that it was furthermore concerning that this incident should occur so soon after the Ardwick blockade earlier this year.
“My understanding from engaging with your team at Network Rail at the time was that this was a once in a generation closure of Piccadilly station to renew and upgrade the infrastructure, delivered successfully and on schedule. I would be grateful for an explanation as to whether an opportunity was missed to address ageing OLE infrastructure during the blockade.” adding
“Whilst I appreciate the ongoing efforts of your team to respond to this incident, I would like a full explanation as to how this incident occurred, the reasons behind the delays to the repairs, how and why this was not mitigated by works undertaken during the Ardwick blockade, and assurance that Network Rail are taking the full and necessary precautions to ensure that the risk of such an incident happening again is minimised to its fullest extent.”
He finished by saying that thid once again gave him cause for concern that the ageing rail infrastructure in Greater Manchester is not fit for purpose for a modern railway, particularly as the city region integrates rail into the Bee Network over the coming months and years.
“I would be grateful for your report to outline Network Rail’s long-term investment plans for Greater Manchester’s rail network to ensure that rail disruption does not continue”
