A SURVEY of business owners across Greater Manchester and Cheshire – including Warrington – has identified the M60 as the region’s most consistently congested motorway.
Sixty nine per cent in a poll of Federation of Small Businesses’ members identified the busy Manchester ring road as the worst motorway for being regularly gridlocked, even beating the notorious stretch of the M62 between Manchester and Leeds in to second place at 12 per cent.
The M602/M62 west of Manchester and the M56, which serves Manchester Airport, each polled seven per cent of the votes for joint third, while perhaps surprisingly the M61 which serves Bolton – with just four per cent – polled fourth.
The M66 in Bury earns the title of least congested motorway in the region with just one per cent.
The survey also quizzed respondents on how to improve motorway congestion.
Increased capacity/extra lanes was the most popular choice (47 per cent), followed by “better public transport” (18 per cent).
“More smart motorways” polled 14 per cent. Just six per cent though road tolling would help.
When it came to improving east-west connectivity between Greater Manchester and Yorkshire, the survey revealed overwhelming support for a road tunnel under the Pennines. In total 41 per cent of respondents selected this as a preferred option, followed by 26 per cent for a new railway line, and 24 per cent for extra rolling stock on existing lines.
Simon Edmondson, FSB regional chairman for Manchester and North Cheshire, said: “Without question, the M60 has the dubious honour of being the worst motorway in the region for congestion – even convincingly beating the M62 in to second place, and that’s saying something. It’s quite clear improvements to the M60 can’t come soon enough, but our members
don’t seem convinced ‘smart’ motorways are the answer.
“When the major transport networks aren’t up to standard it affects the region’s economic productivity – and this is fundamentally what the Northern Powerhouse project is seeking to address. We need more capacity and we need it now.”
Commenting on the popularity of the trans-Pennine road tunnel revealed in survey, Mr Edmondson added: “There’s clearly support for a new road under the Pennines and we would urge the DfT to hurry the decision on this. A project of that size and scale would have a huge and lasting
economic benefit, and would be a project befitting of George Osborne’s grand Northern Powerhouse vision.”
Survey reveals region’s most congested motorways
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