The best ways to get into Manchester from Rochdale
With the rebuilding of a railway bridge over the M62 leading to the cancellation of all trains between Rochdale and Manchester until the end of this month, here is a quick video on the best ways to get into the city using alternative transport.
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00:00Travelling into Manchester has become a little bit of a nightmare.
00:03Now let's start by saying that it's going to be pretty tough to find someone to blame for it.
00:06Because, essentially, starting at the end of last week, work began on the Castleton Rail Bridge,
00:10which runs over the M62 and is used to carry trains from Rochdale into Manchester.
00:15The bridge was 60 years old, which is near the expiry date of the materials that were used,
00:19so it had to be taken down and replaced.
00:21But the inconvenience for commuters is still there.
00:23For people coming to the city from Rochdale, a train here, to Victoria, used to take around 10-15 minutes.
00:28Now it's significantly longer.
00:30There are still options.
00:31For instance, the tram is an excellent option.
00:33It's fairly cheap and convenient, and the pink line runs straight towards Exchange Square.
00:37The only issue with it, really, is that it takes around 50 minutes from Rochdale town centre.
00:42Northern Rail are also running rail replacement services, meaning that buses might be your next best option.
00:46These services take significantly less time than the trams, which stop only every couple of minutes.
00:50However, they are at the mercy of traffic, so rush hour buses might end up taking significantly longer
00:54than the approximately 30 minutes that's advertised.
00:57The same is true of regular buses.
00:58They can take even longer than trams, in fact.
01:00The number 17 bus from Rochdale takes over an hour to reach Shudehill interchange,
01:04and if you end up getting on 471, you'll need to change in Haywood
01:07before finally getting into Manchester an hour and a half after you set off.
01:09So with all that in mind, driving might be your best option.
01:12It's around a 40-minute drive if you're coming in on a weekday morning,
01:15and although traffic's a bit unpredictable with all the changes,
01:17you are at least master of your own destiny.
01:19The challenge here will be parking.
01:21The best that I've found are in Salford for around £6 per day.
01:24It may be a walk-in for you, but the tram's much more efficient over a short distance like this anyway.
01:28As I say, it's definitely irritating, even for me, but there are solutions,
01:31and the new motorway bridge is set to be completed by the 25th of September.
01:34Once finished, it'll apparently last significantly longer than the 60-year shift
01:37that the old bridge, rest in peace, managed.
01:39As a quick aside, if you're coming from further afield, such as Hebden Bridge,
01:42your best bet might be finding your way to Burnley and getting the X43 bus.
01:45It goes straight into Manchester, it actually finishes here behind me,
01:48and still costs only £2 per journey, and they're pretty frequent too.
01:51So, fingers crossed the work gets completed on time,
01:53and I won't have to research transport or parking as much as I have over the last week.
01:57But thank you very much for watching. Follow Manchester World for more.