MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS: Why doesn't Manchester have an underground rail network?

Description

Dr Martin Dodge, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester and researcher into the project, believes that the tunnel’s failure was mainly due to bad timing as the UK economy suffered.

“Overall, this was the national economy”, he said. “My sense, from the archival material, was that there was an animosity among the big beasts in Whitehall and officials in Manchester and [the scheme] was an easy one to cut as they hadn’t started digging yet.”

Although he believes greater regional autonomy may have made the tunnel possible, he also expressed scepticism about how necessary a tunnel is to improve transport in the city.

“You don’t need a tunnel, it’s not economically needed. What’s really needed for economic efficiency is lots of local improvements, but that’s not as glamorous and doesn’t sell the scheme.

“Do you build a tunnel, or do you spread, say £500 million across a lot of things that improve transport for millions of people across the city?”