Improving Journeys: Heywood Business Survey

Overview

Greater Manchester is building the Bee Network a new, joined-up transport network bringing together bus, tram, active travel, and rail services into one system, taking you where you need to go. 

Buses will form the biggest part of the Bee Network. In any given year, more than half of Greater Manchester’s population will travel by bus. Greater Manchester has received Government funding to make highways improvements that support quicker, more reliable, and more accessible bus journeys on key routes as well as safer, more accessible walking, cycling, and wheeling routes.  

Transport for Greater Manchester, Bury Council and Rochdale Council are currently developing proposals to improve journeys for people catching the bus, walking, wheeling or cycling between Bury, Heywood, and Rochdale town centres. By getting more people to use the bus, walk, and cycle we can also help to reduce congestion for other road users such as motorists. 

The Bury-Rochdale bus corridor is an 11km stretch running along the A58, with the town of Heywood around halfway along the route. The 471 bus service covers the entire length of the corridor, travelling Westbound it continues beyond Bury on to Bolton. The corridor connects with the rail network in Rochdale and with Metrolink in both Rochdale and Bury. Bury and Rochdale Interchanges are busy transport links and in Heywood a concentrated collection of stops provide an interchange between bus services.  

Proposals include:  

• Traffic signal and junction upgrades to improve the efficiency and reliability of bus journeys; 

• New and upgraded pedestrian and cycle crossings in places where people struggle to cross roads currently; 

• Introduction of new cycle lanes;  

• Increased public realm spaces and footway widths to help create a much-improved experience of being in and walking around the town centre; and 

• Upgrading bus stops along the corridor to provide a consistent level of provision for passengers. 

The scheme objectives are to:  

• Improve speed, journey time, performance, and reliability of bus services for passengers between Bury, Heywood, and Rochdale (predominantly the 471 route) 

• Improve the quality of bus stops, making sure they are comfortable, safe, secure, more accessible, and able to provide accurate travel information. 

• Make journeys to and from bus stops easier. 

• Improve local walking, cycling, and wheeling routes, public spaces and nearby neighbourhoods.  

• Increase the number of bus, walking, wheeling, and cycling journeys along the route. 

• Help the economy grow, improve areas, create job opportunities, and increase the number of people visiting town centres and high streets along the route. 

Alongside this, the work will also support the growth and regeneration of Heywood Town Centre as shown in Rochdale Council’s ‘A Growth Plan for Heywood 2022-2030’ and Heywood Town Centre Masterplan, by ensuring an appealing and accessible town for all. Complimenting the recent investment to rejuvenate the historical Queens Park Bridge as part of ongoing investment in the area.  

The Heywood Masterplan envisions the town as well connected and as a vibrant centre of character and attraction, celebrating local culture, enterprise, community, and heritage. The town’s assets include its community-focused identity and opportunities for regeneration. 

We are looking to make bus journeys more reliable, accessible and attractive, and ensure Heywood is a town people want to visit for work and leisure. As part of the proposals, we are aiming to create a more attractive town centre environment by: 

• Enhancing the public realm, creating a more pleasant environment with more plants, benches and improved surfaces which helps to boost footfall in the town centre. 

• Building more pedestrian crossings to allow people to cross roads safely. 

• Increasing footway widths and improving surfaces for people walking, wheeling and cycling around the town.   

Why your views matter

We want to hear your feedback on our proposals to improve journeys in Heywood because we know the most successful schemes are informed by local people, businesses, road users, and other local stakeholders. Your comments and feedback will help us to shape the scheme and deliver the maximum benefits. 

A first round of engagement took place in Spring 2024. We asked people to tell us what they thought about our initial high-level, outline proposals to improve journeys in Heywood. The helpful feedback from this engagement helped us to change and update our initial proposals. 

This second round of engagement on the updated set of proposals is taking place between 7 April and 18 May 2025. Feedback from this second round of engagement will help to refine our proposals further and create a more detailed set of proposals.     

A consultation is planned to take place on these detailed proposals in the future once they have been developed and at that point you will be invited to give your views once again.  

Following the consultation on the eventual detailed proposals, a full business case for the proposals will be reviewed by decision makers to decide what parts of the scheme should go ahead or not. 

Any proposals which are approved are anticipated to be delivered during the period 2026 to 2027.       

Survey Details 

The proposals within Heywood have been divided into four areas: 

• Bridge Street and St James Street 

• Dawson Street, Market Street and Hill Street 

• Bamford Road and Dawson Street 

• Lance Corporal Stephen Shaw MC Way 

Further information on how we will use this information you provide is available in our privacy notice that you can view at https://tfgm.com/privacy-policy  

The survey will be open until 23:59 on 18 May 2025.  

Supplementary Information 

The key information about the proposals is within this survey, but if you wish to access supplementary information on the proposals this can be found at the below webpage:  

https://improvingjourneysbtr.exhibition.app/  

Supplementary information includes: 

• A “You Said, We Did” summary of the previous engagement on initial proposals that took place in spring 2024, and how the feedback has helped to shape the updated proposals. 

• Potential economic and environmental benefits from the proposals. 

• How the proposals support TfGM and Rochdale Council strategies for Heywood, the borough of Rochdale, and Greater Manchester. 

• What other projects to help improve public transport and active travel are being delivered nearby to help link journeys up. 

You can request a paper copy of the supplementary information to be sent to an address, details of how to do this are below.  

Survey Help 

A paper copy of the survey can be requested to be delivered to an address and returned Freepost to Transport for Greater Manchester. Instructions on how to return the survey via Freepost will be included in the paper copy of the survey itself.  

If you require support to respond to the survey, you can contact us at hello@beenetwork.com or by phoning 0161 244 1000. The contact centre is open Monday to Friday between 7am to 8pm, and at weekends and public holidays between 8am to 8pm. People can use this number to: 

• Complete the survey over the phone. 

• Receive support for non-English speakers. 

• Request the survey in an alternative language or format. 

• Request a paper copy of the survey to be sent to an address. 

• Request a paper copy of the supplementary information to be sent to an address. 

• Request further information about the public drop-in sessions if you do not have online access