{"id":2448,"date":"2012-12-05T20:16:53","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T20:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2012-12-07T12:41:14","modified_gmt":"2012-12-07T12:41:14","slug":"metrolink-east-manchester-line-opening-put-back-to-february-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2448","title":{"rendered":"Metrolink East Manchester line opening put back to February 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opening of the East Manchester Line extension of Manchester Metrolink to Droylsden has been delayed until February next year. The news was first announced at\u00a0a Tameside Council meeting and was then subsequently confirmed by Transport for Greater Manchester. It had been hoped that the first trams in passenger service would be operating before Christmas but TfGM have now admitted that this will not be possible and so have confirmed the big launch will be on 11th<\/sup> February 2013.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The East Manchester Line will be the first Metrolink line to head out of Piccadilly Station the other way and will feature eight new stops at New Islington, Holt Town, Etihad Campus, Velopark, Clayton Hall, Edge Lane, Cemetery Road and Droylsden. It is planned that eventually there will be a tram every six minutes at peak times reducing to every 12 minutes off peak and every 15 minutes on Sundays and Bank Holidays. After the line is up and running as far as Droylsden a further extension to the line is due to open in winter
\n2013\/4 with stops at Audenshaw, Ashton Moss, Ashton West and Ashton-under-Lyne.<\/p>\n

Tests and driver training have recently commenced on the line but these have now stopped for the time being, as per the plan for commissioning the line. The opening of the line was already running behind schedule before this latest setback with the integration of the new TOS equipment into the existing network the main cause.<\/p>\n

The initial announcement of the opening date for the East Manchester Line was made during a Tameside Council meeting by the Council leader, Cllr Kieran Quinn, who also expressed his dismay at the delay and disruption the construction of the line had caused. He said: \u201cknow this has been a testing time for Droylsden residents, but we can now see the finishing line. As disappointing as it has been to see this project arrive behind schedule, there is no doubt that the arrival of Metrolink to Droylsden will be a massive boost for the people and businesses in the area.”<\/p>\n

As part of a charm offensive to locals it has also been revealed that Transport for Greater Manchester will be offering local residents and school children in Droylsden special free three day passes for use before the line is officially opened. Households in the catchment area will be sent more details about this closer to the time and local schools will be contacted to arrange for classes to travel at specified times on supervised trips.<\/p>\n

Cllr Andrew Fender, Chair of the TfGM Committee, said: “We\u2019re now entering the final stages of the programme for the new line to Droylsden, which means we\u2019re getting ever closer to that landmark moment when we open the doors to passengers for the first time. The progress we\u2019ve made so far on testing and commissioning has been encouraging, but it\u2019s now clear that we\u2019ll not be able to open for service before the year is out as the tram management system being delivered by Thales has not been available within the prescribed timeframe. While it\u2019s disappointing to be seven weeks beyond the revised target, we\u2019re confident we\u2019ll be opening the line in February thanks to the interim solution put in place by TfGM. This arrangement is similar to those developed by TfGM which enabled the opening of the South Manchester and Oldham lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is now looking likely that the next section of line to open on Metrolink will be a short section on the Oldham and Rochdale Line from Oldham Mumps to Shaw and Crompton early next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opening of the East Manchester Line extension of Manchester Metrolink to Droylsden has been delayed until February next year. The news was first announced at\u00a0a Tameside Council meeting and was then subsequently confirmed by Transport for Greater Manchester. It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2448"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}