‘Tis the season for new adverts it would appear! After a quite few months of very few new adverts, Manchester Metrolink have really gone for it with new vinyl wraps. After recent ads on 3091 for Prosecco and 3031 for Soccer Aid, the past few days have seen a further three trams receive wraps – 3081, 3097 and 3119.
3081 is now advertising JD Sports with the bright red vinyls (making a nice change from all their previous tram adverts which have had a dark background) making their debut in service on 24th March. This replaces fleet livery for the tram – although it is certainly no stranger to adverts!
This is now the ninth different advert is has carried with its first being IKEA between May and December 2019. Since then its advertised Starling Bank, Get on Board, Hard Rock Café, Delicia Drench Body Butter, Autotrader, Juneyao Airlines and David Hockney exhibition at Aviva Studios. The last of these ads was removed this January.
JD Sports make a quick return to advertising on the trams as well with a previous contract, which was carried on 3118, coming to an end in January. This was a fairly short-lived ad having only been applied in November 2024.
Next up in this article is 3097 which has received adverts for Sealife, who have a venue at the Trafford Centre. Although this is the first time that Sealife have advertised on Metrolink, they are a well know brand on the trams in Blackpool, including part of an ad on 001 which was seen in 2019-2023 and “B-fleet” Balloon 709 still carries long-expired vinyls with it being stored at Rigby Road Depot.
These vinyls, which feature images of some of the creatures you can see at Sealife, are just the second set of adverts that 3097 has carried. It last advertised Cheez-It between September 2024 and January 2025.
And finally, 3119 has received vinyls promoting the fact that tap and go payments have now been extended to the bus network as well as Metrolink. The Tap and Go Bee Network vinyls are yellow (although a slightly different shade of yellow from fleet livery!) and pink. This is the first time that 3119 has succumbed to advertising vinyls.
3081 sits at Deansgate-Castlefield with a service to Etihad Campus showing its new adverts. This tram started back at The Trafford Centre with a service change currently operating owing to the trackworks on 1CC.
In this photo we see 3119 with its new vinyls for Tap and Go. This end of the tram has a yellow background and as we can see the far end is pink. The image was taken at Victoria and 3119 is on the way to East Didsbury. (Both Photographs by Reece Hughes, 28th March 2025)
3097 with its Sealife vinyls is seen here at Deansgate-Castlefield on the way to Victoria. (Photograph by Dave Elison, 29th March 2025)