Same location as last week for this edition of “Manchester Metrolink Then & Now” but we look in a different direction.
That location is Market Street as we look towards Piccadilly Gardens where today the chances are it won’t be too long until you see a tram running on one of the several routes which come this way now.
In these views we are looking away from Market Street into Piccadilly Gardens – an area which looks very different today. This was 1989 and again was before Metrolink construction had started. Today we’re used to seeing trams running into Market Street but back then it was a Routemaster bus which was running on route 143 to West Didsbury. RM1604 was new in London in 1963, and moved to Manchester in 1987. It would then go for a short period to Rotherham before making its longest journey ever, to the USA where it was converted into an open topper! Its now operating to the Niagara Falls.
It’s a very different scene on 4th March 2024 as 3083 approaches the very same position as the Routemaster on its way to Victoria. Its not just the bus to tram conversion that is a change either as Piccadilly Gardens has undergone a major transformation over the previous 25 years. (Both Photographs by Keith Chadbourne)