The expansion of Manchester Metrolink has been named as Project of the Year at the international Light Rail Awards held in London earlier this month. The opening of the East Manchester line as far as Droylsden, the East Didsbury line and the Oldham-Rochdale line was recognised as the awards which seek to reward the best in international light rail and are organised by the LRTA.<\/p>\n
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Other winners on the night included MPT \u2013 the contractor involved in constructing the\u00a0 Metrolink extensions \u2013 winning Supplier of the Year, RATP winning Operator of the Year for their global light rail operations (including Metrolink) and Bombardier (supplier of trams to Manchester and Blackpool \u2013 although the latter did not receive any new vehicles in the past year) was Manufacturer of the Year whilst being highly commended as Supplier of the Year.<\/p>\n
The Awards also seek to reward individuals who have done that something special in light rail with Pat Armstrong \u2013 who was strongly involved in the project to originally introduced Nottingham Express Transit and who also a key part of the Phase Two project before his recent retirement \u2013 winning a Lifetime Achievement Award. In Manchester three staff were rewarded in the Rising Star category with Louise Poole, TfGM\u2019s Passenger Service Development Manager, and Rachel Schonewald, Metrolink\u2019s Change Controller, were highly commended whilst Gary Scanlon, MRDL\u2019s Operations Expansion Manager, was the winner for his work on the simulator and driver training programme. Meanwhile Liz West, Communications Manager on the Metrolink expansion, was shortlisted for Employee of the Year.<\/p>\n
The Manchester Metrolink project was also highly commended in other categories with TfGM and MPT highly commended for Best Environmental Initiative for the overall environmental commitment on the Metrolink expansion project and the Metrolink Tram Pro network simulator being highly commended in the Innovation of the Year category for significantly reducing the time needed for driver training on the network\u2019s new lines.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the recognition for Metrolink, Cllr Andrew Fender, Chair of the TfGM Committee, said: \u201cWe are immensely proud that the industry has recognised the expansion as a positive example of delivering an ambitious, large-scale project that will make a genuine difference to Greater Manchester, its people and its economy. Our success at the Light Rail Awards is a fitting testament to the hard work of everyone involved in both delivering the Metrolink expansion and keeping the network running on a daily basis. My congratulations and thanks go to everyone recognised at the awards. It was a fantastic occasion and just reward for the achievements that have been made in recent years.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The expansion of Manchester Metrolink has been named as Project of the Year at the international Light Rail Awards held in London earlier this month. The opening of the East Manchester line as far as Droylsden, the East Didsbury line … Continue reading