You may have heard but this summer sees comeback concerts by Oasis at various places across the UK. This will include both Edinburgh and Manchester where trams will play a major role in transporting people to attend the gigs. To this end the Bee Network have announced their plans for transport, including a revised tram service to give the highest capacity possible on the Bury line.
The transport plan is complicated by the ongoing engineering works in Manchester City Centre which means there are no trams running between Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly Station. To manage the capacity best it has been decided that a 6 minute frequency shuttle service will run between Bury and Victoria with the normal Altrincham-Bury service suspended.
The concerts in Manchester are taking place at Heaton Park on 11th, 12th, 16th, 19th and 20th July and on all of these days the revised service will operate.
This will see trams running:
- Victoria to Bury (every 6 minutes using double trams)
- Altrincham to Exchange Square
- East Didsbury to Rochdale Town Centre/Shaw and Crompton
- The Trafford Centre to Deansgate-Castlefield
- Eccles to Cornbrook via MediaCityUK
- Manchester Airport to Deansgate-Castlefield
- Piccadilly to Etihad Campus/Ashton-under-Lyne
After the concerts Heaton Park tramstop will be closed with people asked to go to Bowker Vale to catch their tram back. Last trams to the city centre will run at 0202 on 11th, 12th, 19th July), 0132 on 16th July and 0130 20th July. Last trams to Bury are at 0116 on 11th, 12th, 19th July, 0046 on 16th July and 0044 on 20th July.
As well as the tram service there will be a shuttle bus running to the event.