Manchester’s transport update

Here’s all of the transport news that the Manchester World team has for this week.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to your transport update for Manchester this week. There's

00:03always a lot going on in and around the city so we'll dive straight into the news

00:07on what will be another busy festive week in the area. Let's start with the

00:11rail. Now there'll be a reduced train schedule between Crewe and Manchester

00:15between Saturday the 28th of December and Friday the 3rd of January and

00:18there's going to be a bit of worry about the impact that staffing shortages could

00:22have on the reduced schedule as a whole so please make sure that you're keeping

00:25your eyes on the schedule consistently just to make sure that you don't get

00:28blindsided. The reason for the potential shortages is that many train drivers

00:32and crew members don't have Sunday working included in their contracts with

00:35rail bosses hoping and expecting that staff will agree to work overtime to

00:39staff services. However this is less likely over the festive period and as

00:43yet it's unsure if the incentives on offer are enough to tempt people into

00:46work. On Christmas Day the whole rail network will be closed with a limited

00:50service running on Boxing Day though some routes in and around Greater

00:53Manchester will be closed slightly longer for engineering work so it's

00:56worth checking the Network Rail website for a full list of affected services.

01:00Onto cars now and drivers planning to get away for Christmas are being warned

01:03to expect long queues because of record traffic levels in the area. The AA have

01:08stated they believe December 20th will be the busiest day on the roads during

01:11the festive season with 23.7 million drivers planning a trip. They've also

01:16predicted some of the areas of Manchester that will face likely severe

01:20congestion with the main hotspot being the M60 near the Trafford Centre. There

01:24will also be bad traffic jams on the 21st of December and the 23rd each with

01:28an anticipated 22.7 million drivers on the road. Now that's the bulk of our

01:33transport news this week but we also have a piece on our website about a

01:36farmer Brian Lee who discovered that a planned link road goes through his

01:39property and potentially even his detached house. Now he sold some of his

01:43land back in 1998 to allow for a road to be built with no progress made in the 26

01:48years in between he says it's had a significant impact on his ability to

01:52sell his property or land. Hopefully some clarity arrives soon for him but that's

01:56all for now we'll see you next week with another transport update.