Manchester Metrolink will resume services through St Peter’s Square from Friday 28th August following the completion of the first stage of the major transformation works. The past two months have seen all services through this key area of the network cancelled following the start of the works in connection with the Second City Crossing but with the first part of these now completed it will be possible for trams to once again pass through although they will still not be stopping for a further year.
Since Sunday 28th June services from the south of the city have been terminating at either Cornbrook or Deansgate-Castlefield with services from the other side of the worksite being diverted into or beyond Piccadilly. Replacement bus services and specially signed walking routes have been in place for passengers during this period but from Friday 28th August it will be all change with tram services resuming. Metrolink have again pushed shuffle on the where the trams will run and have announced that the following services will operate:
Altrincham to Etihad Campus
Altrincham to Deansgate-Castlefield
Bury to Piccadilly
Bury to East Didsbury
Eccles to Deansgate-Castlefield via MediaCityUK
Rochdale to Ashton-under-Lyne
Manchester Airport to Cornbrook
This service pattern will be in place for approximately a year before a further full closure of the tramway through St Peter’s Square in summer 2016. This will last for eight weeks before finally in September 2016 a full service will resume. The works at St Peter’s Square will see two island platforms constructed – one on the current city centre crossing and one on the new Second City Crossing – with the stop being the only one on the network to have separate platforms for the two city centre routes.
Peter Cushing, Metrolink Director at Transport for Greater Manchester, said: “I’d like to thank our customers for their patience over the summer while we’ve worked to build this single line of track through the square. It means we can keep trams running through the city – getting people to work, shopping and events over the coming year – while we build a brand new tram stop right alongside the new line. We’re pleased to be on track to get the work finished in time for the bank holiday and Manchester Pride celebrations, of which we’re a proud supporter.”
This Cushing guy wants pushing – out of the door – his tenure has been a litany of taking an almost new system and destroying its resilience and utility for its users, route, after route, after route!
Why could not St Peters Square have kept at least one through line operable throughout the CC2 works so as to retain a semblance of a service – but No! The blockade mindset of exporting the costs and delays of executing works on the system out to its users is well to the fore.
I had the experience of waiting well over an hour for my daughter to make it from Exchange Quay to Guide Bridge the other day. She has had to modify her working day to accommodate this bungling lot!
Couple this with the failure to manage the safety and security of the network outside peak hours and who in their right mind would use this system for other than strictly necessary journeys?
I don’t see such disruption elsewhere – why do we have to put up with it here?
No disruption elsewhere Frank? Sheffield Supertram during track relaying? Midland Metro during the work at Wolverhampton? Or have I dreamt these?
Its a pity that rather than seeing the positive some see the negative, Metrolink was built on a shoestring, and only now are we seeing the short sited (but Right at the time) issues corrected. Yes it takes a lot longer in the UK then elsewhere, but we are hampered by regulations not of our making (why for example when relaying a route does the new tramway have to move the services) . 2CC is already a success story as the stub from Victoria is making massive leaps. 2CC will allow the airport and other services access to the city. I am quite sure some would have found it easier just to shut the section till the new layout was finished and Peter Cushing and Metrolink should be praised for the way they are keeping the trams running.
Having moved to Manchester last year I think the metro is marvellous, when you’ve lived in a small town with poor Arriva bus services, typically 10-15 mins late, Manchester public transport is wonderful. The access I now enjoy to the city and outskirts is so good I hardly use the car.
woo hoo. I am over the moon that the trams are going back through the city centre for 10 months before the next closer for 8 weeks. If anyone wants to travel on Metrolink please check there website to see if they have any planned works is going to happen on thier lines.