Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has agreed twelve weeks of funding for Manchester’s Metrolink network enabling key routes to remain open for people travelling to hospitals, supermarkets or those who cannot work from home.
The money, part of the Government’s £30m of funding announced today for the country’s light rail networks, will keep the service running in the short term after Greater Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham threatened time mothball the service if Metrolink was not given the same support as bus and rail networks during the Covid-19 crisis.
Metrolink is currently losing £5.5m a month after passenger numbers plunged since the lockdown and it began running a much reduced service
