Metrolink to / from Etihad

Moved from South 3 to Colin Bell Y this season to be nearer the supporters bus park.
The games i do not get the supporters bus i will get the bus in and tram back in to town.
I was dreading getting the tram back into town but pleasantly surprised at how the queues flow before tram arrives.
Okay they are still overcrowded but the service is still good enough for me not to leave the match early.
 
Think its also worth reminding everyone about Manchester City Council's involvement in this mess. They made it an express condition of planning permission for Co-op Live that there should not be one single additional car parking space provided. I can't recall if the same was true of the North Stand expansion but wouldn't surprise me. It's then imposed a much wider no-parking zone around the Campus making it even harder for car drivers. And then, left everyone to it to sort out their own public transport arrangements.

Metrolink are contracted to provide a service across the boroughs, they receive no subsidy to do so. There are constraints on the system - there is need of new generators to allow extra capacity, and the ridiculous half-arsed turnback at Velopark shopuld be expanded to allow all Piccadilly trams to run to Etihad on match days without signifcant distruption. So, yes they can run extra trams but its on a "maybe" basis.

And that leaves the club having to subsidise the matchday bus network. Given the general level of praise for that, it seems to work well, but will soon need to be enlarged to cover more areas, and becasue it becomes a victim of its own success.

At the end of the day, we can't expect public transport to be comfortable, and its likely to be overcrowded when 50000 people all want to go from A to B at the same time. We can hope it will be reliable and frequent, and thats what we've got to improve...especially when its obvious there's demand.
 
.db. said:
Close to Old Trafford there are 6 different Met lines to get on either to the destination of the line or to Manchester City Centre.

You can get the Trafford Centre line from Wharfside which is the closest station to the ground.
Eccles or Media City lines from Exchange Quay which is the next closest.
Eccles, Media City or Trafford Centre lines from Pomona.
Altrincham line from Old Trafford which is the fourth closest station to the ground.
Altrincham, Manchester Airport or East Didsbury lines from Trafford Bar.

I’ve not listed the Salford Quays (Eccles or Media City lines) or Imperial War Museum (Trafford Centre line) stations which are only about as far away as the Old Trafford and Trafford Bar stops.

Next season we’ll have 85% of their attendances struggling with one stop servicing one line (Ashton-under-Lyne line).
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And more when there is a concert on at the same time!
 
jockblue said:
Think its also worth reminding everyone about Manchester City Council's involvement in this mess. They made it an express condition of planning permission for Co-op Live that there should not be one single additional car parking space provided. I can't recall if the same was true of the North Stand expansion but wouldn't surprise me. It's then imposed a much wider no-parking zone around the Campus making it even harder for car drivers. And then, left everyone to it to sort out their own public transport arrangements.

Metrolink are contracted to provide a service across the boroughs, they receive no subsidy to do so. There are constraints on the system - there is need of new generators to allow extra capacity, and the ridiculous half-arsed turnback at Velopark shopuld be expanded to allow all Piccadilly trams to run to Etihad on match days without signifcant distruption. So, yes they can run extra trams but its on a "maybe" basis.

And that leaves the club having to subsidise the matchday bus network. Given the general level of praise for that, it seems to work well, but will soon need to be enlarged to cover more areas, and becasue it becomes a victim of its own success.

At the end of the day, we can't expect public transport to be comfortable, and its likely to be overcrowded when 50000 people all want to go from A to B at the same time. We can hope it will be reliable and frequent, and thats what we've got to improve...especially when its obvious there's demand.
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The only improvement has been closing the road junctions on Merrill Street so the trams don't get stuck in traffic.
 
jockblue said:
Think its also worth reminding everyone about Manchester City Council's involvement in this mess. They made it an express condition of planning permission for Co-op Live that there should not be one single additional car parking space provided. I can't recall if the same was true of the North Stand expansion but wouldn't surprise me. It's then imposed a much wider no-parking zone around the Campus making it even harder for car drivers. And then, left everyone to it to sort out their own public transport arrangements.

Metrolink are contracted to provide a service across the boroughs, they receive no subsidy to do so. There are constraints on the system - there is need of new generators to allow extra capacity, and the ridiculous half-arsed turnback at Velopark shopuld be expanded to allow all Piccadilly trams to run to Etihad on match days without signifcant distruption. So, yes they can run extra trams but its on a "maybe" basis.

And that leaves the club having to subsidise the matchday bus network. Given the general level of praise for that, it seems to work well, but will soon need to be enlarged to cover more areas, and becasue it becomes a victim of its own success.

At the end of the day, we can't expect public transport to be comfortable, and its likely to be overcrowded when 50000 people all want to go from A to B at the same time. We can hope it will be reliable and frequent, and thats what we've got to improve...especially when its obvious there's demand.
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To be fair there are a lot of bike racks..............


yeah I'm being a sarcy ****. I'll add .....since they've been installed I think I've seen about 3 people using them. None were older people and most sensible older people are not riding bikes in pissing down rain on mad roads.
 
mancityvstoke said:
To be fair there are a lot of bike racks..............


yeah I'm being a sarcy ****. I'll add .....since they've been installed I think I've seen about 3 people using them. None were older people and most sensible older people are not riding bikes in pissing down rain on mad roads.
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I would not ride a bike in Manchester even if the sun is shining... :-) it's a dangerous practice.
 
The Light Was Yellow Sir said:
If it’s half price for paying quickly and there are 4 of you it’s only £3 more than the ‘special buses’…
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My son and three of his mates "worked" as stewards at the Heaton Park Oasis concerts and they got parking tickets every day on the basis that it was under £10/day for each of them for all day parking.
This is, of course, the same approach that Mario Balotelli used when collecting parking tickets every day in town.
 
Marvin. said:
You might choose to live in the city centre and sell the car. It probably doesn't work for households with children but if you are single or elderly, it makes a lot of sense.
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Not if you still work and have tools and materials to carry ….. not everyone wants to live in cesspit city centre either or can afford to …. Daft idea
 
It might not work for you but the city centre population has grown rapidly because you can live there without a car. It's not a cesspit.

The main reason for my comment though is to report that most train travel to the North is currently suspended emphasising the point I made earlier about where the weakest link in travel to the Etihad lies. It's getting to Manchester in the first place.

From Avanti:

"Due to a fault with the signalling system between Birmingham New Street and Crewe, all lines are blocked. Trains running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed."

MEN reporting carnage at Euston which has suspended all travel to the North.
 
Marvin. said:
It might not work for you but the city centre population has grown rapidly because you can live there without a car. It's not a cesspit.

The main reason for my comment though is to report that most train travel to the North is currently suspended emphasising the point I made earlier about where the weakest link in travel to the Etihad lies. It's getting to Manchester in the first place.

From Avanti:

"Due to a fault with the signalling system between Birmingham New Street and Crewe, all lines are blocked. Trains running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed."

MEN reporting carnage at Euston which has suspended all travel to the North.
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Try walking around Piccadilly at night. I don’t need to get to Manchester , I live here. This thread is about the trams and buses to the ground and away from it for fans going to every home game .
 
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Citizen of Legoland said:
The issue is simple, the network cannot handle the numbers of passengers at certain places and times now (let alone after any developments like the NS that will increase ridership) because of the way the network was designed and extended. They can’t really do anything so can’t say anything. When you’re at a station waiting because your tram hasn’t turned up, it’s because it got stuck in an issue somewhere else on the network, sometimes right across town. Adding extra trams might mean you get a tram turning up sooner OR it means those trams cause the system to snarl up even worse meaning no benefit or worse service. It’s like an electrical circuit, you can only put so much through it before it blows and it then needs fixing.

This is why they are talking about three underground tunnels across the city to handle trams and trains. Manchester has exploded in sizr and is continuing to do so. You can see a video here which explains some of it https://www.skyscrapercity.com/posts/195371973/.

Sadly most of us won’t see this happen even if something like this goes ahead, and that’s going to be hard to convince the government to release money.

In the meantime, it’s buses that will take the strain.
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Anyone who really expects a multi-million (or billion) pound metro system to be built to transport people, a little over a mile, to circa 28-29 home matches every year, my answer is best of luck!

In any event would take years if not decades to build a underground system in Manchester judging on the timescale for the last few London Underground lines. Also underground lines are cheaper to bore in London clay that the less easy conditions in Manchester.

You correct that the only viable short-term fix will be bus based. There could be limited improvements to Metrolink by deploying extra trams after the match is expected to finish. That will not provide more than sticking plaster. There isn't the capacity in Metrolink to do that.
 
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