Metrolink Victoria stop to be closed temporarily whilst redevelopment works take place

Transport for Greater Manchester have announced plans for the major redevelopment of the tramstop at Victoria which will see it completely redesigned to provide new platforms to increase capacity and allow more trams through Victoria in light of the additional services coming onto the network in the future. As a result of this work taking place it will be necessary for all tram movements through Victoria to take place on a single line of track and TfGM are proposing to close Victoria to passengers whilst this work is undertaken.

It is currently envisaged that the majority of work will be undertaken between January and September 2014 and Victoria tramstop would be closed for the duration of the work to allow as many trams through the area as possible. Currently as many as 30 trams an hour travel through Victoria and this service level will not be able to be carried on a single line of track. As a result of the closure of the stop it is proposed that there will be changes to the service operated and it is hoped these will be approved by the TfGM Committee later this month.

The changes will include:

* Bury-Altrincham direct service would continue to operate as normal but all services would be formed of double trams (instead of the 6 out of 10 diagrams currently scheduled for double units)

* A shuttle tram service will run Bury-Abraham Moss running every 12 minutes. This will cater for the high number of local journeys on the Bury line – said to be a third of all journeys.

* A shuttle bus service will run Abraham Moss-Queens Road-Victoria-Shudehill-Piccadilly for passengers heading to and from Piccadilly.

* Trams on the East Manchester Line to Droylsden will run to and from Eccles instead of Bury. These will continue to operate at a 12 minute frequency.

* The Rochdale-East Didsbury service (currently only running to St Werburgh’s Road) will continue to operate every 12 minutes via Victoria.

Peter Cushing, TfGM’s Metrolink Director, said: “The transformation of Victoria station is a fantastic project and Metrolink passengers are going to benefit from it greatly. We’ve arranged for the work to the Metrolink stop and tracks through Victoria to be done quickly and efficiently in parallel with the station’s overall upgrade to minimise the long term disruption and to ensure passengers can benefit from it as soon as possible. With that comes the need to run trams on a single line of track through Victoria, which affects how many trams we can physically run through it. We’ve looked at the implications of that very closely and the proposals we’re putting forward are, on balance, the most effective, the safest and the least disruptive and also mirror the journey demands we’ve monitored on the network. By closing the stop to passengers, we can run more services through Victoria on the single line but it’s also safer, given the nature of the work being done.”

During the work any passengers requiring Victoria are advised to catch the tram to Shudehill and then complete their journey the short distance by foot. When there are major events at the Manchester Arena additional measures will be put in place to cater for demand. Shudehill will also be fitted with extra ticket machines and signage with staff on hand at the busiest times to advise passengers.

The whole of Manchester Victoria is due for redevelopment in the near future and the chance is being taken to improve the Metrolink lines and platforms through the area at the same time. Although there will be significant disruption for passengers during the works it is pleasing to note that the line will remain open for the majority of the time so through journeys from Bury and Rochdale to the City Centre and beyond can continue to be taken.

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8 Responses to Metrolink Victoria stop to be closed temporarily whilst redevelopment works take place

  1. Ken walker says:

    This raises a couple of questions. How long will this single line section be? I can’t think of where the nearest crossover is on the city side of Victoria. And how are they going to provide 10 double trams when there are only 14 T68s left and T68As and M5000s aren’t able or allowed to run in pairs?

  2. Gareth Prior says:

    I don’t know about the crossover but as far as the double units are concerned I would imagine they will mostly (if not totally) M5000s. It is almost guaranteed that Mosley Street will have closed by then so there will be no limits to which trams can run as doubles across the city. How many T68s will still be available for service by next January is also open to debate!

    • Ken walker says:

      Mosley Street being closed by that time was the only thing I could think of. Only a couple of weeks ago I got off a tram from Rochdale at Mosley Street and noticed there was a 2xT68 following close behind,and it occurred to me that I had never got a photo of a double T68 with the steps extended on the rear vehicle! I didn’t realise that the steps are only activated at individual doors when the door open button is operated, I assumed that all the doors on the rear vehicle when the driver released the doors.
      As far as the extent of the single line is concerned I can only presume that a crossover will be installed between Victoria stop and Corporarion Street before work starts. Even with trams not calling at Victoria, a Bury/Altrincham and a Rochdale/East Didsbury every 12 minutes means a tram every 3 minutes over the single line so it will have to be very short!

  3. fred Collins says:

    Rather interesting that the Droylsden/Eccles routes will become one in that the line should have been extended to Ashton by then.

  4. Danial Hall says:

    Again crossover is going o n Ballon Street. Mosley Street due 2 close at the end of May 2 coincide with the opening of the East Didsbury line. From wot ive been told a date in November has been given 4 the opening of EML 2 Ashton

  5. neil says:

    oh no, not more reasons for the metrolink trams to stopped, faulty signals so trams running late, something on the line 20 mile away, faulty tram on a different part of the network so all trams are running late, somebody dropped there shopping on the line at eccles line =trams running late etc etc. what a joke the metrolink system is now, every time they extend it. it just gets worse. gone are the days when the trams just run to bury and Victoria,, then Altrincham. I for one used to use the trams all the time in an down the line but now try Not to use them now….. stood at too many stops and listened to announcements saying the those dreaded words !!!.

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