{"id":2950,"date":"2013-02-10T11:55:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T11:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2950"},"modified":"2013-02-10T11:55:32","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T11:55:32","slug":"east-manchester-line-welcomes-first-passengers-as-trams-run-to-droylsden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2950","title":{"rendered":"East Manchester Line welcomes first passengers as trams run to Droylsden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the official opening of the East Manchester Line between Piccadilly Station and Droylsden is not due until Monday 11th February the introductory service initially intended as a thank you to local residents has seen passengers carried since Friday 8th February \u2013 and not only local residents with the special tickets!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first tram to depart in passenger service eastbound from Piccadilly was M5000 3007<\/strong> (will the history books give this tram the honour of first tram to Droylsden or will that fall to the tram used on Monday morning?) with a small number of passengers onboard but as the weekend progressed more and more passengers were carried especially as the news reached non Tameside residents that services were open to all and that Metrolink staff were handing out the VIP free tickets to all and sundry! Ticket machines across the network were also allowing the purchase of tickets to any of the stops on the line as far as
\nDroylsden.<\/p>\n

As mentioned elsewhere on this site the first day of services was not without incident as a bomb scare near to Piccadilly Station (which turned out to be a laptop) meant that no services were able to operate through the City Centre. As a result services from Droylsden
\nwere forced to terminate at New Islington before heading back east.<\/p>\n

The East Manchester Line is the first Metrolink extension which will head out the \u201cother way\u201d from Piccadilly Station and features eight new stops at New Islington, Holt Town, Ethihad Campus, Velopark, Clayton Hall, Edge Lane, Cemetery Road and Droylsden. Services to Droylsden will be an extension of the Bury-Piccadilly service. The East Manchester Line will be extended further by winter 2013\/4 to Ashton-under-Lyne with a
\nfurther four stops joining the network.<\/p>\n

The \u201cfreebie\u201d service will end from the start of service on Monday 11th February after which normal fares will be charged to all stops on the line. The initial service frequency is due to be every 12 minutes at peak times dropping to every 15 minutes off peak although
\nit is planned that a tram will run every 6 minutes at peak times and every 12 minutes off peak eventually on the line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

3002 is seen here at the Droylsden terminus on 3rd February 2013 during testing before the line opened to passengers later in the week. (Photo: Ralph Oakes-Garnett)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

An image from the "first" day of services to Droylsden as 3008 is captured at Shudehill on its way to Droylsden on 8th February. (Photo: Mark Sheppard)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the official opening of the East Manchester Line between Piccadilly Station and Droylsden is not due until Monday 11th February the introductory service initially intended as a thank you to local residents has seen passengers carried since Friday 8th … 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\/2950"}],"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=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2954,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions\/2954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}