AS you reported, we keep being told: “When the works are complete there will be a minimum of two lanes for general traffic in each direction on the East Lancs. We are building a new lane wherever we can, and only using the existing road where there are currently three lanes.”

But this means that where an extra lane can’t be built, under the M60 at Swinton for example, buses from the bus lane will have to merge into the existing two lanes, and traffic merging is a major cause of slow traffic.

The East Lancs becomes three lanes into Manchester when it is joined by traffic from the M60.

It needs to be three lanes here because the motorway feeds in significantly more traffic, is all this traffic going to have to feed into two lanes, and be crossed by the bus lane?

Chris Lewis