Metrolink to / from Etihad

JGL07 said:
It was absolutely brilliant today. A 2 minute wait at St Peter’s Square and less than that at the Etihad coming back. I even got a seat on the way back.

Keep up this service.
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Totally agree. Turned up at Deansgare Castlefield at 17:55. An Ashton tram turned up full & standing, but there was a special to Etihad Campus on the screen 3 minutes behind it (and another 3 mins behind that) so waited for that & it was empty.
Coming back, got on a special heading towards Trafford Bar & again easily got a seat.
 
JGL07 said:
It was absolutely brilliant today. A 2 minute wait at St Peter’s Square and less than that at the Etihad coming back. I even got a seat on the way back.

Keep up this service.
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What !!!!! At 7pm there was on tram going from Piccadilly to Ashton. No one could get on, we tried to get a cab and then tried the next Met which was equally rammed. The trams were all stuck behind the broken down one so the service as usual was fucked. We were lucky to then get a cab.
You must have been very very lucky. It is a total shit show.
 
Blue Mist said:
What !!!!! At 7pm there was on tram going from Piccadilly to Ashton. No one could get on, we tried to get a cab and then tried the next Met which was equally rammed. The trams were all stuck behind the broken down one so the service as usual was fucked. We were lucky to then get a cab.
You must have been very very lucky. It is a total shit show.
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I have seen me buy a day ticket,get a tram on the Salford Quays direction,get off and go on the other side for a tram to the Etihad.
Would not think of boarding at the Gardens or Piccadilly Station.
Try the bus,longer but far more civilised.
 
Dial M 4 Mercer said:
Fylde coast blue travelling to the next home match against Palace. After the last match it took nearly 3 hours to get home by car, due to traffic. Thinking of coming by train to Piccadilly, and then by Metro link to the Etihad. How long does it usually take after a match to get back to Piccadilly by Metro?

Thank you in advance.
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On the metro no longer than 10 minutes but the cue can take a while, I waited after the Newcastle game for about 20 minutes maybe & I came from level 3 SS with a toddler so furthest away as possible.
 
Below is an excerpt from an MUEN article today on Sunday's marathon chaos for affected residents, shows what can be done if they want:

"Metrolink will be operating a six-minute frequency on the Altrincham line with more double trams and increased capacity on the network".
 
Blue Mist said:
What !!!!! At 7pm there was on tram going from Piccadilly to Ashton. No one could get on, we tried to get a cab and then tried the next Met which was equally rammed. The trams were all stuck behind the broken down one so the service as usual was fucked. We were lucky to then get a cab.
You must have been very very lucky. It is a total shit show.
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We left the restaurant at around 7:20 and walked to St Peter’s Square and a tram arrived almost immediately. We were in the stadium in plenty of time to buy a beer before the match.

Getting a tram from Piccadilly Station close to the kickoff can be difficult as most will be filled at Piccadilly Gardens if not St Peter’s Square. I would usually not bother on a dry day as the walk is only around 25 minutes. There was no option before the tramway opened.

Sometimes it is worth getting a tram going the other way to Deansgate or even Cornbrook, and then get a seat on another one coming back.
 
JGL07 said:
We left the restaurant at around 7:20 and walked to St Peter’s Square and a tram arrived almost immediately. We were in the stadium in plenty of time to buy a beer before the match.

Getting a tram from Piccadilly Station close to the kickoff can be difficult as most will be filled at Piccadilly Gardens if not St Peter’s Square. I would usually not bother on a dry day as the walk is only around 25 minutes. There was no option before the tramway opened.

Sometimes it is worth getting a tram going the other way to Deansgate or even Cornbrook, and then get a seat on another one coming back.
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Annoyingly we had said lets walk back to Peters Sq...... but didn't. I fully accept it was because the broken down tram caused a back log but it is an very unreliable old fashioned system.
 
Gray said:
The fuckers have excelled themselves tonight, absolutely appalling service from the stadium after the game. Useless bunch of incompetent twats.
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I saw the queue and couldn’t face it. Walked to town and got one from Picc Gardens.
 
I'm never 100% sure about about the tram from Altrincham and back. It usually works, but it has also failed on too many occasions for me to have total confidence in the service.

The best fail was buying a ticket from the machine at Altrincham station, with a young lad wearing a metrolink jacket standing nearby. After I'd paid my cash and the ticket dropped down, he very helpfully came over and told me there weren't any trams running.

'What's the bloody use of you telling me that now I've bought a ticket'?'

I've missed two games this season due to cancelled services, admittedly not the direct fault of Metrolink as it was due to strike action by the rail workers that control the signalling along the line somewhere, but only a couple of weeks ago after the early evening game on Saturday, I was stuck for 30 minutes at St Peters Square waiting for a service back to Altrincham.

I have experienced far too many failures to write about individually, but they all add up, and leave me no choice other than to conclude it's a crap system.

I've said it before, but if the London Underground was as pitifully unreliable as Metrolink, questions would be asked in parliament and there would be uproar on the streets.
 
All seemed to work fine post match last night. A constant stream of specials back to Deansgate/ Trafford Bar between the Eccles scheduled trams so kept people moving.
The only weird thing pre match was that the specials were single trams (running Crumpsall to Etihad Campus I believe). Better than nothing I suppose, but single trams are hardly crowdbusters!
 
staffsblue said:
All seemed to work fine post match last night. A constant stream of specials back to Deansgate/ Trafford Bar between the Eccles scheduled trams so kept people moving.
The only weird thing pre match was that the specials were single trams (running Crumpsall to Etihad Campus I believe). Better than nothing I suppose, but single trams are hardly crowdbusters!
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There were specials running Crumpsall to Etihad? Is this a new thing?

I have also just been reading SSC about work being done on the Bury line upgrading the substations and how it should lead to more services, more doubles etc. Probably why you only saw single units as they simply can’t run too much through that line as it currently stands. I’d be happy to catch a tram from Bury into Crumpsall if I could change onto an Etihad tram. At least there’s signs that they’re addressing the problems.
 
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staffsblue said:
Never witnessed it before. Not sure if it was a one off or just because spare drivers and trams were available at Queen's Road.
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Aye probably. The new platform at Crumpsall is probably easier to turn services back. It’s eventful use will be to run services to the Trafford Centre but they’re not able to yet. I can live in hope.
 
Parked at Ashton West. Very quick to the Etihad and the return was quicker than normal.

Problem for me last night was the M56. They've just upgraded it but from the airport jct to A556 jct, it was conned off with just the outside lane open. No warning before hand. Fcucking useless.
 
I just don't understand metrolink at all. The whole idea of running such a system is surely the ease, speed and convenience of getting from A to B. This is particularly true for special events like concerts and sporting occasions. They have four tram services that run into Piccadilly station. The stadium is three stops from there. Now any normal person running this service would allow those trams to carry on to the stadium on matchdays. They can then turn around and do their return journey, except for the Ashton one that carries on. Not metrolink though. Oh no passengers on these trams have to get off and change, often on overcrowded platforms. Madness.
 
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