Corridor Manchester - Infrastructure
Connections By Road
Manchester`s central location means that 60%of UK businesses and 20 million customers are within a two hours drive.
GMPTE is proposing is to provide a link across the city centre that will allow cross-city bus services to run - so people will not have to change services or pay more than one fare - as well as infrastructure that will help to cut journey times and improve reliability. They will also provide better links between areas in the north, west and south of Greater Manchester and the education and health facilities on the Oxford Road corridor.
Distance to Birmingham: Up to 100 miles (Up to 1.5 hour)
Distance to Bristol: Up to 200 miles (Up to 3 hours)
Distance to Edinburgh: Up to 300 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Distance to Glasgow: Up to 300 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Distance to Leeds: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to Leicester: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2.5 hours)
Distance to Liverpool: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to Manchester: Up to 25 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to Newcastle: Up to 150 miles (Up to 3 hours)
Distance to Sheffield: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to Oxford: Up to 200 miles (Up to 3 hours)
Distance to Cambridge: Up to 200 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Connections By Rail
Manchester stands at the core of the region`s train network covering 142 route miles and 98 stations.
Metrolink is an on street light rail system and a major part of an integrated transport system for Manchester. Investment totalling £1Bn sees the Metrolink network doubling in size with four new lines including one to MediaCity UK due to open 2011/2012.
Major investments are planned over the next five years to improve the city region`s public transport and highways schemes. In May 2009, a £1.54Bn Greater Manchester Transport Fund was put in place with funding ring-fenced for 15 schemes.
Connections By Air
Manchester Airport is the UK`s largest regional airport serving more destinations worldwide than any other UK airport. It currently offers flights to 225 destinations with direct flights to Europe`s major cities, the Far East and ten US cities.
The airport is situated 20 minutes from Manchester city centre and conveniently accessible by public transport.
Freight
Manchester Airport is home to the largest freight terminal outside of London, handling around 170,000 tonnes of import and export freight and mail per year. This is expected to increase to around 250,000 tonnes of cargo per year by 2015.
Flights per week to Central London: 7 or more
Distance to Birmingham: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2 hours)
Distance to Manchester: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Connections By Freight Ports
Manchester Ship Canal is a major inland waterway stretching from Manchester to the Port of Liverpool. Both the Port and the Canal form the gateway to an economy of more than 120,000 industrial and commercial enterprises, together handling more than 40 million tonnes of cargo and 15,000 ship movements a year - making the River Mersey Britain's third busiest estuary.
Both are operating under the flag of Peel Ports. Major investment of over £200 million sees further development of the both as hubs for international trade with significant cost savings to transport freight and a 'green' alternative to inland road haulage.
Distance to Liverpool: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Broadband / ICT Facilities
The ICT sector employs over 100,000 people in the Manchester city region which equals 10% of the national IT workforce.
Over 500 companies from the Media, Digital and ICT sector are represented on The Corridor Manchester bringing the workforce to 3,600.
The next generation fibre broadband initiative provides an excellent platform to exploit the opportunities within this industry. The Corridor Manchester partnership will be working together with M:KC and the MDDA to bring together diverse groups from within The Corridor to explore the potentials of next generation applications and services and develop these as a result of NGB.
