Saturday 26th August could well have gone down in the record books for Manchester Metrolink’s line out to the Airport as it enjoyed one of its most intensive services since the line opened to the public. With a number of high profile events taking place in the city – and with strike action affecting rail services – a revised service was operated on Metrolink which. although the core service was actually at a lower frequency than usual, also included some additional trams in operation.
On this day there were three major events which needed the crowds moving for. Firstly, the annual Pride event took place in the city centre which got underway at 1200 and didn’t finish until 1500. In addition Manchester United played a home game at Old Trafford against Nottingham Forest and then Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds were performing at Wythenshawe Park. It was the latter event which mainly impacted the Airport line and with gates opening at 1400 an enhanced service was operated from the middle of the day.
The main service operated to the Airport from the start of service saw double trams running every 15 minutes on the usual route between Victoria and the Airport (requiring nine diagrams). Then from the middle of the day a supplementary service ran between Deansgate-Castlefield and the Airport – utilising single trams only. To allow this extra service to run, trams from The Trafford Centre were turned at Cornbrook.
At the height of the service there were 8 trams an hour running between the Airport and Deansgate-Castlefield. 26 different trams were required for this service. Unless anyone can correct us otherwise we believe that this is a record output for the Airport line.