Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester has joined in with celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the East Didsbury extension. The line formally opened on 23rd May 2013 and since then more than 41.5 million journeys have been made on line.
Mr Burnham joined local Councillor Andrew Simcock, former chair of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee, Andrew Fender, and ex-Didsbury councillor Geoff Bridson at East Didsbury terminus where they handed slices of special Metrolink cake to passengers!
Andy Burnham said: “Metrolink is a great example of what we can achieve when we have a locally run system that is accountable to, and delivered in the best interests of our local communities. It’s been a game-changer for Greater Manchester and the expansion programme was one of largest and most ambitious transport projects to be delivered in the UK. It demonstrates perfectly why we are uniquely placed to continue to deliver the transformational changes to public transport and active travel that the Bee Network will bring to all our communities over the coming years.”
An evaluation report that detailed the impact and benefit of the phase 3 Metrolink extensions found:
- The new lines removed an estimated 38.8m car kilmometres from the roads in 2019/20 – contributing towards Greater Manchester’s goal of 50% of all journeys being made by public transport and active travel by 2040
- Contributed to a reduction in carbon emisisons that equates to the removal of 6,700 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2019/20 – helping to accelerate the city-region commitment to be carbon neutral by 2038
- Provided a significant improvement in public transport access to employment, further education and healthcare
The line is now showing strong signs of recovery following the pandemic with 4.7m journeys made between April 2022 and March 2023. This compares to 1.23m in 2020/1. Before the pandemic in 2019/20 it was up at 5.806m.