Improving Journeys: Oldham 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 and local councils are currently developing plans to improve journeys for people catching the bus, walking, wheeling or cycling between Rochdale, Royton, Oldham and Ashton town centres. By doing this we will also help to reduce congestion for other road users such as motorists.

The work will focus on the A627 and A671, the main corridor between the four towns including the 409 bus route and is planned between now and 2027.

Proposals include:

• Major investment to improve junctions, lane layouts, bus stops, signal timings, public spaces and passenger access to the bus network.
• Improvements to local walking, wheeling and cycling routes.

The scheme is being delivered to:

• Improve the speed, journey time, performance, and reliability of bus services for passengers between the towns on the A671 and A627.
• 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 the links between bus stops and tram stops and rail stations.
• 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.

The proposals can be divided into four main geographical sections:

• Oldham
• Royton
• Rochdale
• Ashton

Why your views matter

We are currently engaging on the outline proposals for the Oldham section of the route. This follows on from previous engagement on outline proposals for other sections of the route in spring 2024.

We want to hear your feedback on the proposals to improve journeys in Oldham because we know the most successful schemes are informed by local people, businesses, and road users. The feedback to this survey will help us to consider which outline proposals progress to a more detailed proposals phase.

A consultation exercise will take place on any detailed proposals once developed so you will have further opportunity to give your views on plans to improve journeys in Oldham before any decisions are made.

Survey Details

This survey starts with questions about your interest in the survey, how often you travel, and your mode of transportation. The proposals within Oldham have been divided into six areas:   

• Oldham Road, High Barn Street to Shaw Road
• Hospital to Sheepfoot Lane
• Chadderton Way/Rochdale Road Junction
• St Mary’s Way/Rochdale Road junction
• West Street Gyratory, Rochdale Road/King Street
• King Street Roundabout

The survey will present a map of the proposals, a text description of the proposals, and a question on how the proposals might impact you, for each of the six areas. Finally, there is a series of demographic questions. All questions are optional.

Please note the six Oldham maps are labelled 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. This is because there is a separate survey on detailed proposals for Royton open at the same time as the Oldham survey. This Royton survey contains map 1, which covers the town of Royton. The proposals for Royton are being consulted upon separately to Oldham as they are more developed.

The Royton survey can be found on the following webpage:  https://www.gmconsult.org/. A paper copy of the Royton survey can also be requested from Transport for Greater Manchester via hello@beenetwork.com or by phoning 0161 244 1000. Please consider completing the Royton survey once you have completed the Oldham survey.

The Royton and Oldham surveys will both be open until 23:59 on 31 March.

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://tfgm.com/projects/improving-journeys/rochdale-oldham-ashton

Supplementary information includes:

• A detailed “Frequently Asked Questions” list including:
  • Evidence of the economic benefits of bus and active travel improvements
  • Environmental benefits
  • How the project is funded
  • How the engagement and consultation process will help shape the proposals
  • Timescales for future engagement and consultation on the Royton, Oldham, Rochdale, and Ashton sections of the scheme.
• This webpage also links to a specific Oldham section webpage which includes:
  • A “You Said, We Did” which explains how previous feedback has helped shape the proposals

Survey Help

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

What happens next

Thank you for completing our survey, we appreciate you taking the time to do so. The survey closes at 23:59 on 31 March 2025. Following this, the responses will be analysed. The feedback to this survey will help us to consider which outline proposals progress to a more detailed proposals phase. A consultation exercise will take place on any detailed proposals so you will have further opportunity to give your views on plans to improve journeys in Oldham before any decisions are made.

A “You Said, We Did”, explaining how feedback has been used to help shape the proposals will be published on https://tfgm.com/projects/improving-journeys/rochdale-oldham-ashton once analysis has taken place.