Trams return to Manchester City Centre ….
Metrolink came back to Manchester City Centre yesterday after the first major rebuild of the most heavily used part of the system since it opened in the early 1990s.
Our trains have seen many more using them from Altrincham to Piccadilly whilst the central section of Metrolink has been closed.
It will be interesting to see if we lose these passengers back to Metrolink having provided them with a very reliable service since last April. (We achieved our best train running performance figures in the summer since our records began in 1998 – over 93% arrived at their destination within 5 minutes of their timetabled time – very good!)
If you’re one of those who “flip” your travel between Metrolink and our line, let us know your experiences and the reasons. No Capital Gains Tax benefits for you though!
7 comments 
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November 3rd, 2009 at 8:41 am
I and two business colleagues used it last night around 6pm from St Peters Square to Northwich. Back to the same old overcrowding, we had to wait for 3 trams, almost 20 minutes, until we could get on one and then missed our train from Altrincham. Never mind the PR – they need to sort the system out so we can use it! I’m going to Old Trafford tonight from town for the match. I think I’ll walk. It will be quicker.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 am
It’s because of you lot from Cheshire filling them up that we can’t get on our trams at Stretford. You should stay off them and use your trains!
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Is this the Greater Manchester that pinched our line through Sale off us for their trams, caused our trains to be diverted the long way round via Stockport and into the less convenient station of Piccadilly, not Oxford Road where most of us want to go? AND before they did this we had three commuter trains an hour, now we’re stuck with just one. Now Rob wants to boot us off his trams. Referree!!
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Hi, folks!
I can see this from both sides.
Up until the 1960s the line from Altrincham into Manchester was extra tracked in places to allow the fast trains from Cheshire which only stopped at Sale (and Old Trafford on match days, then called Warwick Road) to overtake the stoppers. British Railways removed to extra tracks as part of rationalisation.
Moving on a lot, Metrolink came along. Prior to Metrolink in the peaks places like Stretford had a train every 10 minutes that could carry around 400 people. Then Metrolink came and in the morning peak Stretford gets a tram every 6 minutes carryinging around 200 people, jammed solid and Stretford people can’t get on them for tram after tram. It’s been like that since 1992 – that’s for the last 17 years.
Meanwhile, Cheshire gets a raw deal as well. Poorer train service, the alternative of driving is unattractive – the A556 is officially the busiest road in the UK in the morning and evening peaks based on minutes delay per kilometre – and all the politicians do is talk about it.
A right mess. Nothing gets done. The local economy suffers. No wonder there’s so many raw nerves.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Having started as a booking clerk in 1960 at Warwick Road and working from then until 1994 at every station on the line, I can confirm that the track was “doubled” between Sale and Old Trafford (“Trafford Bar”). This enabled a rush-hour frequency in the early sixties of every 4 to 6 minutes, comprising six-coach trains. I have timetables from 1962 and 1963 to confirm this. The number of passengers travelling were such that at Altrincham, Timperley, Brooklands and Sale, doors to the platforms were closed as each train approached, to ensure last-minute passengers did not delay the trains. Despite six coaches, most trains had standing passengers for the latter part of the journeys.
Unfortunately, even then, decisions were made that (intentionally or otherwise?) dissuaded passengers from travelling – for example at a time when Trafford Park industry was still able to need workers on Sundays, the first (and subsequent) trains were retimed ten minutes later. This ensured that workers just missed the buses into the Park – in just two weeks, passengers on the first train dropped from approximately 200 to five or six people each Sunday – my father was one affected.
The Altrincham line’s main competitor had always been Manchester Corporation Transport Department’s buses – they had the advantage of price, while the trains had the advantage of speed. The price differential diminished, however, until by about 1969/70(?), some rail fares actually fell just below the bus fare, with the result that one MCTD internal memo was inadvertently posted and was received at Brooklands railway station – the memo noted that the rail fare between Brooklands and Manchester was now less than the bus fare – “This must NOT be permitted….”
The memo was re-addressed and reposted without comment….
As SELNEC succeeded MCTD (and Salford City Transport, et al), followed by GMPTE, each organisation appears (at least to many railwaymen) to be more bus-oriented to the detriment of rail. It is interesting to note that the Tyne and Wear Metro came into being on routes that had been closed by Beeching, rather than merely taking over existing, well-used services. Similarly, Sheffield and Croydon created new routes rather than taking over existing routes, while Edinburgh’s plans again involve new routes.
Greater Manchester’s trams, however, now intend to take over more existing rail routes – Rochdale/Oldham. While the service to the airport does actually reopen an old closed rail route, there is already a city centre to airport service, which also serves part of the tram route (Didsbury area).
While the Bury line was to a great degree just a “point to point” service, the Altrincham line has been (and the Oldham/Rochdale loop will be) massively crippled – the availability of and potential for through services further afield is destroyed. Remember when passengers from the Altrincham line had reliable through services to Chester and N. Wales, Stockport, Hazel Grove, Wilmslow, Crewe (and could have had Manchester Airport)?
The Metrolink was touted as an innovation and a status symbol for Manchester, but is little better than a grand triumph of manipulation and high-powered publicity to take advantage of the vanity and gullibility of the travelling public in the Greater Manchester area.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Rather than ‘fighting’ amongst ourselves, remember the real blame lies with Central Government. Both the Bury and Altrincham routes had a future under SELNEC/GMT with the plans for the Picc-Vic and East/West networks. After funding was scrapped, Metrolink was only conceived as an ‘affordable’ alternative, which was better than nothing.
Again, recently Central Government got the chance to offer tram-trains to the Mid-Cheshire, but they decided to dither over the Penistone route instead, which hasn’t (yet) happened.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Ah yes, having lived in Sale until 1968 in a house close to the railway line I remember the days well when steam trains and the early DMU’s travelling from Chester through to Manchester Central.
We even had steam trains between Manchester Central and Warrington branching off at Deansgate Crossing, which had a gatekeeper, and going up and over Broadheath where the retail park is now, through Dunham, Heatley and Lymm on their way to Warrington and then Liverpool on a line which will unfortunately never reopen again. It would have been ideal for Tram/Train to Lymm and Warrington.
When we played football in Walton Park which backed on the line near Brooklands we always stopped to watch the steam trains and early DMU’s go through. Oh happy days!