The campaign to retain the Woodlands Road stop on the Manchester Metrolink Bury line has stepped up a gear recently with the protest group Save our Station (SoS) presenting a report to Transport for Greater Manchester demanding for the resumption of full services and the long-term retention of the stop.
When the new Abraham Moss stop was opened, which is just 250 yards away, TfGM made clear their intention to close Woodlands Road and indeed at the time they took away all peak services with the stop now only served off peak, The campaign group claim that the area around Woodlands Road has a large number of disabled and elderly residents who are unable to get to Abraham Moss.
A spokeswoman from TfGM said: “Services to Woodlands Road, which was one of the least-used stops on the network, were reduced in April 2011, following the opening of the new Abraham Moss stop 250 yards away. The Abraham Moss stop serves a major regeneration area, was developed with input from the Abraham Moss High School, and is a key part of Manchester council’s aspirations to develop and improve the area. If trams were to stop at both Woodlands Road and Abraham Moss during peak hours, journey times would be affected, and the reliability on the network would be impossible to maintain. Journey time is particularly important to our passengers during peak hours, so over a year ago when Abraham Moss opened, we took the decision to close the Woodlands Road stop during peak hours, during which passengers use the Abraham Moss stop instead.”
“If trams were to stop at both Woodlands Road and Abraham Moss during peak hours…reliability on the network would be impossible to maintain”. In other words the additional stop would compromise the service.
Very strange then, that the TfGM website now mentions planned consultations next week about opening a new stop near Queen’s Road – on the Bury line. Will this stop be off-peak only, or have TfGM been far from honest with the travelling public regarding Woodlands Road? Or is another stop on the line going to be made off-peak only to compensate? This does tend to encourage a biased view as to who is being honest in the current TfGM/Thales dispute.
The plan was always to replace Woodlands Road with Abraham Moss and Queens Road once funding had been obtained for Queens Road. Woodlands Road has always been poorly patronised, If only half of those complaining actually had used the stop perhaps TfGM may not have proposed closure.
I don’t think that it is realistic to form any opinion on the present Thales controversy based on a quote from a PR person. In any case it is not what we believe on this issue that matters, it what the legal profession determine that matters.
If allowance has been made for Queens Road stop from the beginning that’s fair enough, as Roger says some trams already stop there to change drivers so there must be time for it as the timings are the same for all trams on the route. But I’m just looking at it from the point of view of the public who aren’t familiar with the finer details, and I’ve never seen any mention of a planned Queens Road stop in any TfGM or Metrolink publicity (which I accept doesn’t necessarily mean that there hasn’t been any!). On the other hand claiming that reliability of the network would be impossible to maintain because of one additional stop of 30 seconds does seem to be absurd.
I fully agree with you Steve that most of the moaners have probably never used the stop, that is usually the case. The objectors claim the 250 metre path to Abraham Moss is dangerous, yet I’m sure quite a few from the Abraham Moss area have walked to Woodlands Road stop over the last 20 years without complaint, and I’ve never heard of anyone coming to any harm while doing it. As regards the dispute you are right, the losers will be the taxpayers and the massive winners as usual will be the legal profession. The 2 parties concerned should have been big enough to own up to their respective failings and sort it out without the involvement of the courts. The words together, heads and bang come to mind!
I recollect that the Queens Roadstop has been on the cards from GMPTE days as they planned at a future date to convert the staff halt near the depot to a public stop. whether this the stop now proposed by TfGM I dont know but I suspect that an allowance in the timetable for this stop is already built in. I do not know who is to blame for what in the TfGM/Thales dispute but would hazard a guess that it will be the Council tax and Buisness Rate payers of Gtr M/cr who will be the losers!
It seems that Woodlands Road tram station has been closed down regardless of what the local residents think. I personally think it should be re-opened and used as a regular stop. If it does compromise people who travel to work, and there is a lot of elderly and disabled people who live near Woodlands Road tram station, then the off peak hours could be re-introduced. It would be a shame to allow the vandals or the demolition men to destroy a little bit of history that is Woodlands Road. If this is difficult for GMPTE, then I’m sure it could be re-opened as a tourist attraction for people who wish to visit it as a piece of the Manchester history; after all it is located near the Manchester Transport Museum. Also I was wondering if the East Lancashire Railways in Bury could make use of the station or parts of it.