Oldham Council is to introduce a four week-pilot scheme in a bid to cut traffic and tram congestion in Oldham Town Centre.
The council is currently carrying out a multi-million-pound refurbishment of the bridges supporting the borough’s busiest road, Oldham Way, so they are fit for purpose for years to come. Work is due to finish in late autumn 2023.
So that this major refurbishment programme can be carried out safely and in the quickest time, Wellington Street and Waterloo Street have been closed to all traffic.
This has created delays on Union Street, which is also holding up Metrolink trams heading towards Mumps.
The council has put signed alternative diversions in place in an attempt to ease the issue, but motorists are continuing to use Union Street to access the Mumps area. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) have also changed traffic signal timings.
These measures have not reduced the congestion enough to improve tram journey times.
In a further attempt to make travel through the town centre easier, the council is to close access to Union Street from Bridge Street, Robson Street and Greenhill Passage from July 17. TfGM have carried out a traffic modelling exercise of the arrangement, using current traffic flow data, which shows that introducing the closures reduces congestion along Union Street as well as improving journey times along Yorkshire Street.
Access will still be available to the easterly section of Union Street by using Prince Street from Oldham Way or by following the signed diversion along Yorkshire Street and then back onto Union Street.
The four-week pilot will allow us to gauge the effect on traffic movements and tram times before a decision is made whether to continue with the closures until the work on Oldham Way is complete.
We appreciate this pilot may cause some disruption to residents and businesses but if no action is taken to reduce the congestion along Union Street, the tram service will have to be scaled back, which will severely affect the users.