HS2 cash to pay for more train station upgrades in London than Greater Manchester

The Conservatives have been accused of putting London ahead of Greater Manchester for "badly needed" upgrades to train stations.

A list of 50 additional stations lined up for accessibility improvements has been published by the Department for Transport (DfT) in May - with three in Greater Manchester compared to eight in London.

The £350m used to fund the work under the Access for All programme was 'confirmed when HS2 funding was reallocated', according to the DfT's website. It states that these are the 'first stations to benefit from the additional funding.'

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The HS2 leg to Manchester was controversially scrapped by the Conservatives last year, in a move announced by Rishi Sunak at the Conservative Party which took place in Manchester city centre.

The Access for All scheme was set up to help improve access to transport infrastructure, by adding lifts and ramps to train stations and allowing disabled people or those with pushchairs or bikes to use public transport.

Greater Manchester stations included in the latest round of funding include Bredbury, Flowery Field, and Newton for Hyde - but councillors told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that "things need to move quicker."

Rachel Wise is a Labour councillor in Reddish North in Stockport, a ward which was awarded Access for All funding for its train station in 2021. Reddish North station's two platforms can currently only be passed via an overhead footbridge but, despite the funding pledge which was made nearly three years ago, work has yet to begin.

Ms Wise said: "It does seem very unfair, that's investment promised to the north that would improve local services and it's gone to London.

"The waiting is very frustrating, some infrastructure projects seem to get more attention and priority than others. Look at the Elizabeth Line in London - London projects get these things and in the north we have to spend ages making business cases and proving things.

"George Osborne seemed to understand that a lack of infrastructure is holding us back and 14 years on I don't think there's been the investment - it's very wasteful."

Transport for Greater Manchester has published a list of train stations around the region that are in need of accessibility upgrades. These are listed in order of priority but despite Levenshulme being ranked higher than Bredbury, the station missed out in this round of funding which was agreed by government ministers.

Grace Baynham, a Lib Dem councillor in charge of transport at Stockport council, said: "I am pleased that Bredbury has received funding for access for all, but to get all the stations in Stockport accessible within this half of the century, things need to move quicker.

"I believe that both Woodsmoor and Davenport have the highest number of passengers of any of the stations in Stockport without step free access.

"Woodsmoor is also the station nearest to the boroughs main NHS hospital, which makes step free access even more important. It is a great shame that neither of these stations received the funding they so badly need to improve access.

"It is shocking that over many years the north has had nowhere near the investment in rail infrastructure that has happened in London and the South-East and this has been compounded by the loss of HS2 to the region. We urgently need investment to make our stations accessible and our train journeys reliable."

Disability campaigner Nathaniel Yates has been campaigning for improved accessibility at train stations for years. He welcomed plans to improve three more stations around Greater Manchester, but was frustrated with the speed of progress.

He also questioned the stations chosen, and pointed out that Bredbury train station is located in a marginal Conservative constituency.

The other two stations chosen - Flowery Field and Newton for Hyde - fall into the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency, which was won by Labour in the last election with a small margin of 3,000 votes ahead of the Conservatives.

Mr Yates told the LDRS: "I'm glad Bredbury got the funding but it seems weird how they picked the order of things.

"Three stations in Greater Manchester got picked but there are more in London, that doesn't feel right to me if we're supposed to be levelling up.

"They've done this last-minute but it doesn't feel fair. It's a bit strange and suspicious. Bredbury was chosen and it falls into an area the Conservatives want to win.

"It's really hard to get this done. People are still struggling with these stations because they're not accessible, they just have stairs. It's not just disabled people either, it's people with buggies or trying to take bikes. It's very slow and these stations might not get done for some time, it could be years away. "

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We are proud of the Access for All scheme which has made 220 stations step-free, meaning that 75 per cent of all rail journeys now take place from step-free stations.

"Over 300 nominations were made for the latest round of funding and stations were selected using robust criteria, factoring in things like usage, stakeholder support and third party funding.

"The Conservatives are committed to improving accessibility on the network. Only the Conservatives have a clear plan to deliver long-term transformative projects across our rail network."