I WOULD like to take the opportunity to comment on the ‘Busway’ aka 'misguided busway'.

To counter some of the propaganda put forward about the busway by people such as the project manager, who basically other than publicity will not be regularly using the busway.

I travel to Manchester for work every day and I will not be using the busway.

First – if it is such a good scheme why is there only one in existence?

The one in Cambridge has been there over a decade. Ours will be the second in the UK and I don’t see Oldham, Rochdale or even Chorlton planning to introduce one. The scheme in affluent Chorlton, a fraction of the size of Leigh, is remarkably like the one for the busway except Chorlton’s rolling stock will be trams instead of buses. The irony is that we will be paying for it through the GMPTE levy.

Second, why would Atherton need the disruption as there is already a railway station there?

Third, the busway is causing massive disruption and loss of business and seems to me to be a way of introducing the congestion charge through the back door. Even though 80% of people voted against this proposal.

Fourth, why was the Ged Tyrell scheme of a railway link from Pennington to the Manchester to Liverpool railway line not considered? This would have had very little disruption and was roughly half the price. This would not have needed much more that a 1.5 mile link track to achieve. This would also have encouraged business and investment and increased the profile of the area, which is much needed.

Fifth – it seems bonkers to me that Wigan, with two railway links already, is getting a third railway link to HS2 courtesy of Lowton St Mary’s while we will have to catch the 16-mile busway to link to the facility that is passing by our door and blocking traffic. If the planners were based locally and had local considerations would they pass this? I think not! .

Sixth, we never have an explanation of the ‘how’! How will the busway improve business and the locality in general? This is what we are constantly being fed but it is never outlined how this can possibly be achieved on the back of a bus route. We already have an express bus to Manchester and I don’t think this busway bus route will be any faster!

Finally, I don’t think this scheme represents any real value for money as it a very expensive and disruptive way to achieve an extra bus link. For what?

Concerned resident