{"id":9622,"date":"2014-11-03T21:13:07","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T20:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9622"},"modified":"2014-11-03T21:13:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T20:13:07","slug":"metrolink-airport-line-opens-to-passengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9622","title":{"rendered":"Metrolink Airport line opens to passengers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Manchester Metrolink extension to the Airport has now officially opened to the public with the first fare paying passengers welcomed onboard double unit 3080<\/strong>+3070<\/strong>. These two vehicles operated the first journey on Monday 3rd November departing Cornbrook at 0500 for the Airport which was an extra passenger service added for just one day to cater for the crowds expected to want to travel on the first service of the day, as has been traditional as extensions have opened in the past few years.<\/p>\n

The Airport extension is 14.5km and leaves the South Manchester line shortly after St Werburgh\u2019s Road. New stops have been constructed at Barlow Moor Road, Sale Water Park, Northern Moor, Wythenshawe Park, Moor Road, Baguley, Roundthorn, Martinscroft, Benchill, Crossacres, Wythenshawe Town Centre, Robinswood Road, Peel Hall, Shadowmoss and Manchester Airport. A number of major structures have also been built including a viaduct over the River Mersey and two new bridges over the M60 and M56. Services will initially run between the Airport and Cornbrook every 12 minutes but once the Second City Crossing is completed they are likely to be extended to Victoria. Journey times from the Airport to Cornbrook should be 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Cllr Andrew Fender, Chair of the TfGM Committee, said: \u201cSeeing our trams reach Manchester Airport more than a year ahead of schedule is a truly amazing achievement \u2013 and a game-changer for the communities set to benefit from its 15 new stops and frequent, fully accessible services. For Wythenshawe in particular, Metrolink provides new and easier ways for people across Greater Manchester to reach the town centre and all it has to offer \u2013 as well as making it a more attractive place to live, work and do business. The arrival of the new town centre interchange next year will, of course, make it even easier still. For people already living along the line, it will provide new ways of getting to work, leisure, health and education opportunities. Because of that, it\u2019s going to be a catalyst for great change and growth, and I am truly delighted we\u2019ve been able to start that process so much earlier than we expected when we first started this very ambitious and challenging project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Monday 3rd November marked the start of fare paying passenger journeys on the Airport line, selected lucky local residents were able to enjoy a free preview service on Saturday 1st November between the Airport and Barlow Moor Road. This saw 3062<\/strong>, 3065<\/strong>, 3070<\/strong>, 3071<\/strong>, 3075<\/strong>, 3078<\/strong>, 3085<\/strong> and 3086<\/strong> operating a service at the normal 12 minute frequency.<\/p>\n

The Manchester Metrolink network is now 92.5km long (that\u2019s 57.5 miles if you prefer) and serves 92 stops. The Airport line has opened over 12 months ahead of the original schedule (it was listed as opening in 2016) and the next piece of the Metrolink jigsaw to open will be part of the Second City Crossing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Manchester Metrolink extension to the Airport has now officially opened to the public with the first fare paying passengers welcomed onboard double unit 3080+3070. These two vehicles operated the first journey on Monday 3rd November departing Cornbrook at 0500 … 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\/9622"}],"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=9622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9623,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9622\/revisions\/9623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}