Manchester’s transport update

Here is your transport update for this week in Greater Manchester.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to your travel update for Manchester for the week beginning the 2nd

00:03of December.

00:04Firstly, Northern Rail have issued a warning to rail users over the coming month with passengers

00:08who travel on Sundays in December facing an amended timetable in the North West.

00:12And the new timetable has seemingly been implemented to reduce the amount of short term cancellations

00:17which have plagued Sundays over the last few months.

00:19The new timetable will be properly introduced on Sunday the 22nd of December after the RMC

00:24union members rejected an enhanced 4 month pay offer for conductors to work on Sundays.

00:29The situation will worsen over Christmas with many conductors usually required to work overtime

00:34or extra shifts and appetite for this is expected to be reduced as we get towards the festive

00:39period.

00:41Northern Rail's Chief Operating Officer Matt Rice came out to apologise for the rail company's

00:44performance in the North West stating it had not been good enough for some time.

00:48On to slightly cheerier news now and a Manchester Metrolink stop has had a festive rebrand ahead

00:53of the Christmas period with Shute Hill now becoming Slay Hill and a golden Santa Claus

00:59occasionally appearing on the platform to keep spirits high.

01:02Public transport is massively important to Manchester at this time of year and it's

01:07undoubtedly going to be incredibly hectic over the next couple of weeks with festive

01:10travellers and tourists flocking in from all over.

01:13There are frequent tram services though and even overnight buses running towards Leigh

01:16and Bolton via Salford meaning that nobody should need to cut short a Christmas party.

01:22Finally, TransPanama Express have announced that a few extra services will be running

01:25late into the evenings following a couple of select co-op live gigs this month.

01:30Paul McCartney's gig is one of the first that was announced when I started here and

01:33so I'm delighted to say that fans going to see the former Beatle will be able to get

01:38a service leaving Manchester Piccadilly at 1.02am early in the morning of Monday December

01:4316th which will be heading straight to Liverpool Lime Street.

01:46There's a similar service after Slipknot perform on Tuesday 17th December with the

01:50service leaving Manchester Victoria at 12.42am on Wednesday morning and stopping at Newton

01:55Llewellyn, Leigh Green and then finishing at Liverpool Lime Street.