Isn't the capacity less of trams than trains under BR where the peak time service was:
4 car 304s every 20 minutes running stopping services between Altrincham and Manchester
101s (mainly 4 car) every 20 minutes running Chester-Altrincham-Manchester calling at only Sale between Altrincham and Manchester.

The 101s were also much quicker between Altrincham and Manchester than trams.

The Metrolink conditions of carriage say no eating or drinking on trams or tram stops, as well as no suitcases and bicycles. So there's plenty of advantages of trains over trams.

only just discovered this thread, going to answer the questions as they arose in time...

Media:City is getting 5trams per hour, terminating at Cornbrook. The existing 5tph to Eccles will also divert through Media:City to provide 10tph in that section.

The reason the trams will terminate at Cornbrook is because the the other Phase 3a routes open the section of track between Cornbrook and the delta Junction in Piccadilly Gardens will be carrying 35tph in either direction - this is the maximum possible. When 2CC (the second city centre line) is finished in 2016 there will be sufficient capacity in the city centre to allow the Media:City trams to run to either Piccadilly or possible Ashton.

The new trams have hydrolic suspension as opposed to the air suspension on the old trams so should have less shake. Having said that, since the track rennewals a couple of years back the network is pretty much smoothed out now.

The new trams (Bombardier M5000's) have a capacity of 206 compared to the T69's which have 203.

The new M5000's are currently operating across all the network.

It was not possible to add extra sections into the T69's - lots of work was done on this about a decade or so ago, however, the extra section caused all sorts of fire regulation problems and was more expensive to resolve than to buy additional trams to couple them together.

The current investment in the T69's is not really Stagecoachs good work, rather the PTE paying Stagecoach to deliver a load of tram improvements. You will also notice many other small differences like the side mirrors the drivers used to use to ensure they could safely close the doors have been replaced with video cameras and displays in the drivers cabs.

With regards the works on the Alty line, there are loads of documents on AGMA and GMPTEs web sites that discuss ALL the changes that were made to ALL the stations. Since the system was opened in 1992 the disability laws have changed significantly, as such, in 2010 the network was no where near fit for purpose.

What has happened on the Alty line will be done to the Bury line soon with the Eccles line also being re-branded.

All new lines, including the Rochdale loop conversion will also be rebranded as the Alty line has been.

and finally with regards heavy v light rail... the reason that the passenger numbers more than doubled almost immediately upon conversion was due to the much higher frequncy - now a turn up and go 10tph service - along with the fact that the trams take you much closer to your final destination in the city centre.

When all the new trams have been delivered, each direct (Alty to Bury)tram will be double and each Piccadilly service will remain a single unit.

This will provide capacity for 3000 people per direction per hour on each of the Alty and Bury lines. That kind of capacity should be more than sufficient for the time being.

Probably missed a question or two, but I think some have forgotten what Metrolink is and what it isn't.

Welcome to the Forum Kurt. Look forward to more interesting posts.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Someone asked about service frequencies post expansion, from memory this is what is going to happen...

Alty to Bury remains to the same 5tph direct and 5tph to Piccadilly.
Eccles to Ashton 5tph and Media:City 5tph, giving 10tph from east of Harbour City to Ashton.
Rochdale to East Dids 5tph and Shaw & Crompton to East Dids 5tph making 10tph south of Shaw.
Airport 10tph to city centre, spread between Victoria and Piccadilly.

May have missed something, or made a slight mistake but it's generally correct.

Future Metorlink map
 

http://tinyurl.com/y9h5x7n is a rather neat map of what is coming.

Welcome to the forum Kurt. I think that your 3 posts have told me more about the Manchester tram system than all the preceding posts put together., thanks for that.

Regards, 62440.

At present the drivers are under going line of sight training.

At present the system (on Phase 1 at least, i.e. Alty to Bury) block signalling is utilised.

However, once the new lines open a couple of parts of the network will be too busy for such operations, as such, this year the network is moving to line of sight operations across the entire network, this will increase significantly the numbers of trams capable of running through the city centre.

Other more visible changes currently ongoing are the new ticket machines that will be on each station by the summer and new PIDs (Passenger Information Displays) on all stations (I think), much improved on the existing ones, by the end of 2010.

Media:City and Central Park will open by end of 2011, for further dates see www.metrolink.co.uk

really is a very exciting time for Metrolink.

thank you for all the info on the metrolink,you have answered all the questions i have wanted to know for a long time,any idea why the rail/tram interchange didnt happen at central park?thanks again for the info.

To be honest I was not aware that the interchange was not going to happen. Suspect as with almost all negative decisions surrounding Metrolink, if it does not happen it'll be down to cost.

Have just checked www.lrta.org and that suggests the heavy rail stop that as 'potential' i.e. not ruled out, not definately happening either.