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Wednesday, 24 February 2010GMITA to continue train carriage discussions with DfT

Greater Manchester's transport leaders have reported some positive progress following today's discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis. A cross-party delegation from the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA), facilitated by Tony Lloyd, MP for Manchester Central, met Lord Adonis with the aim of securing the Department for Transport's commitment to provide sufficient carriages for Northern Rail to ease overcrowding on commuter services. Councillor Keith Whitmore, Chair of GMITA, said: "We have been working closely with the DfT on this issue over the past 15 months.

"As a first step we are confident that we are going to see additional rolling stock coming to Greater Manchester this year.

"We have successfully demonstrated through our work with DfT that GMITA was right all along that extra carriages are essential if we are to meet current and future demand for rail travel.

"It is obvious that we will need to have continuing discussions with the DfT to agree plans for future years. We have invited Lord Adonis to come to Manchester in the next few weeks when we hope to be in a position to make further announcements."

Councillor Ian Macdonald, Vice Chair of GMITA, said: "Although we have made some progress we understand that commuters' patience is wearing thin whilst this dialogue continues.

"We would like to give passengers an absolute assurance that we will continue to put pressure on Government to end the misery of their daily journeys." Lord Adonis also praised GMITA's work in improving services on Greater Manchester's Rochdale and Stalybridge lines by funding five extra trains last autumn, but acknowledged that more rolling stock for Northern Rail will be necessary as rail travel continues to increase.

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