The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) have confirmed that Woodlands Road stop on the Bury line of Manchester Metrolink can close following the publication of a Closure Ratification Notice. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) must now display the Notice for four weeks at the stop after which they may officially close the stop. However it has been announced that the stop will not close until the nearby new stop at Queen’s Road is completed and open for normal tram services.
It has long been in the plan that Woodlands Road would be closed to passengers as it is said to be one of the least used stops on the network but as with the closure of any stop on the Metrolink network TfGM have to go through the correct procedures to ratify the closure. This has included a public consultation period before the final decision could be taken.
Several locals to Woodlands Road have complained about the proposed closure saying that it is inconvenient to use either of the replacement stops and would then that the elderly and disabled would no longer be able to travel by tram. These arguments have, however, been rejected and the stop will now close in the future.
Two new stops are to be provided for passengers to use with Abraham Moss already open and being well used. Work has commenced around Queen’s Road to create a full stop there and this is hoped to be completed by the end of this year. This stop will be on the site of the current staff only halt at the depot which will now be extended to allow passengers to alight from all doors of a double tram (currently the staff halt only allows access from the front set of doors).
A good decision for the greater good although as with everything in life, there will be losers. Bury to Piccadilly trams used to take 19 or 20 minutes in the old days but now regularly take 23 mins. Stopping at Abraham, Woodlands, and Queens Road whether for staff only or not is simply too much. Especially when network wide TMS could slow down some stretches of the Bury Line where trams cannot stop within line of sight distances from 50 mph. Although it will quicken Irk Valley – Victoria hopefully!
I agree with james on this one.The inbound side have never been very user friendly,its quite a hike up all them stairs,even the ramp is not for the faint hearted.I think there has always been issues with the inbound platform.I remember a story about a double unit having to de-train all its 500 passengers on the inbound platform,the civil engineers were having kittens incase the platform collapsed under the weight.Of course woodlands road used to attract its share of undesirables and wasn’t a nice place to be stuck on your own at night.I think metrolink as a whole will be glad to see the back of it.