Oldham transport strategy 2050 consultation opens

Oldham residents have until 9 March to tell transport chiefs how buses, trams, bikes and trains should serve the borough for the next quarter-century. The consultation, which opened quietly in December, will fix the final shape of the Greater Manchester Transport Strategy 2050 and the decade-long Delivery Plan that follows it from 2027.

The draft documents replace the current 2040 strategy and the 2021-26 delivery plan that expires this year. Together they decide where money will be spent, which streets are redesigned and how the Bee Network-the region's patchwork of joined-up bus, tram, rail and cycle routes-will grow.

Ten local blueprints, one written for each borough including Oldham, sit inside the wider plan. These spell out which neighbourhood streets could be calmed, where new crossings or bus lanes might appear and how each town centre is meant to link into the wider network.

The new strategy keeps the 2038 net-zero carbon target and repeats promises of reliable, affordable travel, but it is the Delivery Plan that lists concrete projects. Officials say resident comments filed before March will be sifted and woven into the finished versions due out later this year.

No price tag or project list has been published yet, so the consultation is the only moment residents can question priorities before budgets are locked in.