STALYBRIDGE’S bus station may NOT now move after much talk it would shift to beside the town’s railway station.
It was presumed the site would relocate to Rassbottom Street, so it would effectively become an interchange.
But a report to be discussed by Tameside Council’s executive cabinet today (Wednesday, November 23) says the preferred option is to keep it where it is, redevelop it – making it smaller and allowing some of the land to be turned into residential – and improve stops at a number of locations around the town centre.
So far, the authority has used £59,000 of an Intra-City Transport Settlement Resource grant, via Transport For Greater Manchester, as options were examined.
A shortlist of a new bus station in the train station’s current car park, new bus stops using the parking area and entrance forecourt, enhance the existing stops on Rassbottom Street and new stops at key locations and redeveloping the existing facility was formed.
And documents state: “The shortlist identified has then been appraised further based on stakeholder acceptability, land ownership impact, forecast timescales for implementation and town centre wide impact.
“This process identified new bus stops at key locations in the town centre (Including by the station) and redevelop existing bus station as the highest scoring option, and therefore this has been identified as the recommended preferred option.
“The option is considered to be cost effective, deliverable, and is forecast to deliver tangible town-centre wide improvements to bus and rail connectivity and to bus infrastructure generally within Stalybridge.
“The option would also allow the existing bus station site, owned by TfGM, to be redeveloped to support wider regeneration efforts within the town centre.”
Company Pell Frischmann, together with Jefferson Sheard Architects and Temple Group, worked to identify and then appraise the options to improve bus-rail connectivity and general bus-based provision in Stalybridge town centre.
It concluded the current bus station is ‘not ideally located for pedestrian access to either the railway station or to the main retail core of the town centre,’ is ‘disproportionate to the number of stands and the number of services’ and ‘does not provide any additional supporting facilities, and therefore it is considered that opportunities exist to rationalise the scale of the existing facility in order to reduce land take for this purpose within the town centre, and potentially to free up additional land for development to benefit the town.’
But the favourite is keeping it where it is and making facilities around it better – with the prospect of Metrolink services coming to the town mentioned.
Documents add: “Whilst not an immediate factor to be incorporated within the options identified, the aspiration is that the study should be cognisant of the potential for Metrolink services and/or tram-train operations to be extended to serve Stalybridge at some point in the future.
“The delivery of improved infrastructure to provide enhanced connectivity between public transport modes as proposed in this study will support the continued regeneration of Stalybridge as a modern hub that more effectively serves its local catchment and attracts additional investment.”