"Metrolink puts tram service on for football and music fans"

[Prestwich_Blue]

I'm claiming the credit for this, although it's not quite as far reaching as I originally suggested. When I was part of City Matters I got invited to take part in a working group that was chaired by Pete Bradshaw, Sustainability Director at City. This included representation from Co-Op Live and other relevant organisations (although I don't recall meeting any TfGM reps). However I know they were talking to TfGM.

We were told that the network was at capacity in terms of tram numbers and there was nothing they could do but my proposal was to use the ones they had more efficiently, by running Piccadilly trams through to the Etihad for an hour or so before and after games.

So nice to see they've adopted the idea but disappointed that it's not more comprehensive.

 

[JASR]

At least the tram is shit in all directions, seems they have some sort of consistency at least.

It seems to be perfect on match days around a piece of scaffolding. I’ve not heard anything, compared to the amount of issues we have over the years with trams - delays, faults, engineering, singles, lack of frequency etc.

In mitigation:
We are shafted by only having one line near the stadium, compared with the 3 around the scaffold.

As already pointed out , The Cornbrook bottleneck is really bad if anything goes wrong, coupled with the fact that the only tram depot is towards Altrincham. A fault at Cornbrook at about 5 in the morning would kill off the entire network.
A new depot needs to be built on the etihad line (or possibly the other side of Victoria lines) - expensive but at least means 1/2 the network can have trams despite a major failure at a single choke point.

 

[staffsblue]

It seems to be perfect on match days around a piece of scaffolding. I’ve not heard anything, compared to the amount of issues we have over the years with trams - delays, faults, engineering, singles, lack of frequency etc.

In mitigation:
We are shafted by only having one line near the stadium, compared with the 3 around the scaffold.

As already pointed out , The Cornbrook bottleneck is really bad if anything goes wrong, coupled with the fact that the only tram depot is towards Altrincham. A fault at Cornbrook at about 5 in the morning would kill off the entire network.
A new depot needs to be built on the etihad line (or possibly the other side of Victoria lines) - expensive but at least means 1/2 the network can have trams despite a major failure at a single choke point.

There is a 2nd tram depot at Queen's Road on the Bury line, so at least something can operate if Trafford depot is taken out by disruption.
The situation at Cornbrook is ridiculous though. At the very least, there should be some 4-tracking through there to avoid the whole network being taken out by a single points failure or track fault.

 

[cyan]

The Cornbrook bottleneck is really bad if anything goes wrong, coupled with the fact that the only tram depot is towards Altrincham.

Isn't the original depot at Queens Road still used?

 

[JASR]

There is a 2nd tram depot at Queen's Road on the Bury line, so at least something can operate if Trafford depot is taken out by disruption.
The situation at Cornbrook is ridiculous though. At the very least, there should be some 4-tracking through there to avoid the whole network being taken out by a single points failure or track fault.

Isn't the original depot at Queens Road still used?

Ha! Didn’t know there was another depot! Ta

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

Ha! Didn’t know there was another depot! Ta

It’s actually not that far from the stadium, about 2 miles. If they could run shuttle buses from there and back it would probably help reduce the congestion after games but they need to have a car-free route to make that work.

 

[JGL07]

The trouble with this country is the infrastructure is rubbish,take Manchester airport for example,an international airport where it takes an hour to get to the city centre by tram,and you can’t even get to Stockport by public transport after 10 pm.they ripped up train lines in the 60’s,tram lines were covered and now we can’t cope with the traffic,unlike most of Europe where they still use old trams accross their network and airport connections are reliable and run to the early hours if not 24/7

Why would anyone use the tram from the City centre to the Airport when there is a vastly quicker rail service from Oxford Road and Piccadilly? The tram link was always intended to transport the Airport workforce to and from South Manchester, not for journeys from the Centre.

The last train from Manchester to Stockport tonight is 23:37. Thirteen trains run after 22:00 from Manchester to Stockport today.

If you think that transport in Manchester is bad you should look at other Cities.

 

[WNRH]

The trouble with this country is the infrastructure is rubbish,take Manchester airport for example,an international airport where it takes an hour to get to the city centre by tram,and you can’t even get to Stockport by public transport after 10 pm.they ripped up train lines in the 60’s,tram lines were covered and now we can’t cope with the traffic,unlike most of Europe where they still use old trams accross their network and airport connections are reliable and run to the early hours if not 24/7

An hour from airport to City Centre is the norm.

JFK to Times Square is more.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

It’s actually not that far from the stadium, about 2 miles. If they could run shuttle buses from there and back it would probably help reduce the congestion after games but they need to have a car-free route to make that work.

That was another suggestion, running shuttle buses to Victoria/Queens Road/Central Park. And to places like GMex/Cornbrook on the south side.

 

[Ctidpaul]

Why would anyone use the tram from the City centre to the Airport when there is a vastly quicker rail service from Oxford Road and Piccadilly? The tram link was always intended to transport the Airport workforce to and from South Manchester, not for journeys from the Centre.

The last train from Manchester to Stockport tonight is 23:37. Thirteen trains run after 22:00 from Manchester to Stockport today.

If you think that transport in Manchester is bad you should look at other Cities.

Maybe Manchester but not from the airport