Recently I wrote about better buses, and the importance of taking back local control over our previously failing bus network. This week, I’m back on transport, but this time, focussing on good news for road and rail.

The first cause for celebration is of course the excellent news that the Mottram Bypass is finally going to get built. This week I received welcome confirmation of this in my mailbag. A letter from National Highways declared “We can now begin construction and work will start on the scheme as soon as possible.” After fifty years of local people waiting for this, and twenty years of personal campaigning, as a Longdendale councillor and as your MP, this was absolute music to my ears.

You can read more elsewhere in the paper, but this relief road will improve local health outcomes, reduce the delays which blight daily life in our villages, and boost our economy. It has been too long coming, but the benefits will be tangible. Alongside my colleague Jon Pearce in High Peak I remain committed to achieving a fuller solution for Hollingworth and Tintwistle long-term, and make sure this is stressed in every meeting I have with relevant agencies.

On railways, it was wonderful to see works to the Stalybridge railway bridge complete. Plans to move Mossley station a little to achieve accessibility at last are also moving on apace.

A functional rail network is critical to boosting the Northern economy, and that’s why I was thrilled to see Labour publish plans to take back control of the rail network, just as we have with buses. Our carefully mapped out plan will see the creation of Great British Railways, a new passenger focused and publicly owned body to run our railways.

After decades of failed experimentation that has seen our rail services be run into the ground and fail to deliver for passengers, Labour will bring our railways back into public ownership as contracts expire. Great British Railways will be charged with running our railways efficiently, and testing every decision against whether it delivers for passengers.

Rail uses have had to tolerate the highest ever level of train cancellations plus the biggest wave of strikes in decades, all while rail operators were handed millions of pounds in bonuses. Enough is enough. It’s time for a competence, ambition and change, in our transport systems, and across the country.