Back in 2009, the local Lib Dems ran a campaign for a Cheadle train station and succeeded in getting it firmly on the agenda with a promise that it would be moved forwards.

We’ve given updates from time to time in our “Keeping in Touch” leaflets and it’s time for another.

This is the subject of another false Tory attack on the Lib Dems – one of several in their current leaflet! The Conservatives seem to be suggesting that, because we don’t have a running railway line with shiny new stations 18 months after first raising the issue, we’ve somehow broken a promise!

I’m sure most local residents understand perfectly well that getting a new railway service – including new stations built – isn’t something that happens overnight, and we certainly never claimed that it did. Building just the station platform costs between three and five million pounds, and the cost of any station building is on top of that.

So here’s where we’ve got to.

Getting a passenger rail service between Stockport and Altrincham, with new stations in Cheadle and Gatley, is firmly on the agenda.

The current plan is for the line to become part of a new tram-train network. These are trams that run on the standard tram lines but can also run on train lines.

Tram-trains are already used on the Continent in Germany and the Netherlands.

In the UK, tram-trains are currently being trialled between Rotherham and Sheffield. Greater Manchester is very keen to start rolling them out with a Manchester to Marple route probably being in the first tranche. Our line would most likely come after that.

I wouldn’t want to give the impression that this is all set in stone and a dead-cert. There is still a lot of work to be done and, as always, different schemes will be vying for limited funding. We’ll need to fight our corner and we may well need the help and support of local residents to make our case as strongly as we can.

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