The Anonymous Widower

Expanding The Manchester Metrolink

In my view the Manchester Metrolink has not grown as fast as it should have done. A good proportion of the system opened in the early 1990s and nothing really seemed to open until the last few years.

For a lot of that twenty year gap, the government was one that you’d think would be sympathetic to expanding public transport in areas, where they could count on the vote. Perhaps, though Blair and Brown were more interested in war abroad than looking after the North!

There have been various plans to extend the Metrolink to places like Middleton, Salford, Stalybridge, Stockport and Trafford Park, but strangely not Bolton. Only the extension to Trafford Park has been funded.

Now I don’t know Manchester politics, but I do feel that if there had been a Manchester mayor for say the last ten years, I suspect with someone batting for Manchester, some of these extensions would have been progressed. Now that one should be there in 2017, hopefully progress will be quicker.

On this post there are comments about the non-extension of the tram from East Didsbury to Stockport.

So can this line be easily built, as it seems to me, as someone who only knows the area from the 1960s and a good map, that it would be of benefit to a lot of people?

Also if the Metrolink went to Stockport rail station, it would surely give an alternative Manchester station for those living on the tram network, just as Watford, Stratford, Ealing Broadway, Wimbledon and others do for the London Underground/Overground. Travellers should be given the choice of as many different routes as possible.

So I looked up how this line would get from East Didsbury to Stockport and found this article, which describes a route as proposed in 2004.

Reading the article, the route seems to be rather complicated and expensive, as it crosses the River Mersey several times and it doesn’t go to the rail station.

So perhaps if Stockport, is ever linked to the Metrolink, it will use a different route.

It all illustrates that extending the Metrolink isn’t as easy as it might first appear. I hope Manchester has got some good transport planners, who know the city well.

As an aside here, it is worth thinking about how the Northern Hub and in particular, the Ordsall Curve linking Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria, will indirectly affect the Metrolink. There could be at least four trains per hour both ways between the two stations and six going towards Bolton and Preston according to Wikipedia. So as some of these services will go south towards Stockport and the Airport, Manchester will probably see a high-frequency service between Piccadilly, Victoria, Bolton, Stockport, Salford and other places in the Greater Manchester area. The trains will all be electric and probably something like the ex-Thameslink Class 319. These trains will extend journeys all round the area to Blackpool, Huddersfield, Leeds, Liverpool, Preston, Warrington and Wigan. With not a lot more electrification, places like Blackburn, Burnley, Sheffield and Southport could be brought into an electrified network, where high-capacity trains run at least four times an hour on all routes.

One thing that would need to be done is improve the interchange between the Metrolink and some of the central Manchester rail stations. Victoria is showing glimpses of being superb, Piccadilly needs to be a much shorter walk and perhaps Salford Crescent needs to be linked to the tram.

I don’t drive and suspect will never do so again, but one thing that always worries me about city transport systems is, are there enough Park-and-Ride spaces and especially close to the motorways? I know London lacks badly in this area and suffers because of it. So how does Manchester stack up?

By the end of this decade, Manchester could be getting the transport system it needs and deserves.

November 14, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Manchester Mayor, Manchester Metrolink, Northern Hub, Ordsall Chord, Trains