Metrolink bailout plan using Greater Manchester Combined Authority reserves revealed as emergency funding ends

Metrolink has unveiled plans to dip into cash reserves of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to help fund and secure its future, transport bosses have announced.

But the exact costings of the bailout proposal have not been revealed despite the Manchester Evening News asking for them. The owners of Metrolink, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), gets the majority of its revenue funding from Greater Manchester Combined Authority anyway via a council tax levy.

Despite no amount being confirmed, it's said GMCA's reserves would need to be 'subsequently replenished'. Details of the proposal featured in agenda papers for a transport committee meeting held today - but the issue wasn't discussed by members.

The move comes as TfGM revealed that despite plummeting passenger numbers during the Covid-19 pandemic, commuter levels over the weekend of the Parklife music festival this year are estimated to have been the highest in Metrolink's 30-year history. Patronage - the number of single journeys made on the network - continues to increase, said TfGM, but 'recovery remains well below pre-Covid levels'.

The Metrolink tram network, run on TfGM's behalf by private company KeolisAmey Metrolink Ltd, was kept on the tracks by Government funding during the pandemic - Metrolink received a grant of £124m between March 2020 and April this year.

An added package of funding support from central Government was also agreed - an extra £20.5m - but that lasts until the beginning of next month. The Department for Transport, said transport leaders, 'has indicated that no further recovery funding will be provided beyond this point'.

Now Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has revealed that 'as a last resort, GMCA has sufficient