TfGM warn Manchester City fans not to board trams this weekend!

Posted on Friday 4 January 2013 by Gareth Prior

With testing on the East Manchester Line past the Etihad Stadium – home of Manchester City – continuing this weekend to enable tests under match-day conditions to take place Transport for Greater Manchester have warned both football fans and members of the public not to attempt to board them! (Maybe they are suggesting that the average football fan isn’t intelligent enough to realise the trams aren’t in public service yet!) Trams will run both before and after the match (with kick off scheduled for 1500) and there will also be some road closures following the match with diversions signposted. The line is scheduled to fully open to Droylsden on 11th February.

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8 Responses to TfGM warn Manchester City fans not to board trams this weekend!

  1. David Holt says:
    Saturday 5 January 2013 at 10:26

    No doubt it’s to find out whether the spit and litter on the rails causes adhesion/isolation problems.

  2. Ken walker says:
    Saturday 5 January 2013 at 13:25

    I don’t understand what they mean by running in match day conditions. How can they assess this with no passengers carried, no potential passengers on stations, and the affected roads closed off? I read somewhere that even the official footpath from Etihad back towards the city centre will be closed off after the match. I can see the “we’re showing you that we are running trams but you can’t use them” message going down well with the fans after the match, especially if their team lose! Perhaps that’s why the footpath is being closed after the match!
    As far as I can see no driver training has taken place on the road as yet, unless it is at night. With 5 weeks to opening date they’ll have to hope we don’t have any serious amount of snow!

  3. TM says:
    Saturday 5 January 2013 at 14:02

    Presumably “match day conditions” means a different timetable with increased frequencies and shorter turnbacks for trams which need to be proven before the system starts operating.

  4. Steve Hyde says:
    Saturday 5 January 2013 at 20:48

    The purpose was to see what effect the traffic management systems normally used before and after matches had on running trams and gain experience before commercial service starts. I have read that taxis caused problems on Merrill Street after the match by ranking up on the outbound track to pick despite the double yellow lines and then attempting 3 point turns in front of the trams. Things like this can be resolved before the start of commercial service. The footpath is a strange one as it has been closed for years during construction but has I think been opened before the match on the last 2 events but closed at full time for an hour and half. Whether there is some concern about the fans straying onto the track I don’t know but obviously everyone is let out in one big crowd after the game whereas they arrive in smaller groups over a longer period before kick-off.

    They were only in driver training with a couple of trams so weren’t testing turnbacks of timetables.

    • Ken walker says:
      Sunday 6 January 2013 at 00:12

      Thanks for the info Steve, I was just curious as to what the purpose was, and if taxis were causing a problem then obviously the exercise highlighted a concern for when the service starts and was therefore a useful exercise. Perhaps the taxi drivers were not aware of it? (Although that does not excuse them parking up on double yellows and the authorities need to clamp down hard on the practice.)

  5. Ken Walker says:
    Tuesday 8 January 2013 at 19:31

    Driver training appears to be under way at last with 3001, 3017 and 3038 noted parked up at Sheffield Street on Monday all with pantographs raised although nobody appeared to be in attendance at lunchtime. Today 3038 was again parked up in the turnback siding, 3001 was in the inbound platform at New Islington with pantograph up / lights on at about 1.30pm looking as though it had just returned from a trip up the line. I presume that these 3 were the trams used on Saturday.
    On the Rochdale line this afternoon 3056 and 3050 had finally made it to Milnrow having been in the Rochdale platform at Shaw over the weekend, and there was some activity around them.

  6. Ken Walker says:
    Sunday 13 January 2013 at 14:57

    Driver training on the East Manchester line now appears to be in full swing. Quite a bit of activity today (Sunday).

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