Free Travel on Metrolink
 

Forwarded from another group. By way of compensation for all the disruption, Metrolink are giving free travel on Saturday and next Thursday !

http://www.metrolink.co.uk/free_travel.asp

I shall be taking advantage of the offer. I had to go to Manchester anyway because I have an appointment with my optician / drinking partner / KWVR volunteer. But I'm going to try and make it to Bury and sample the East Lancs.

I have a feeling it's going to be absaloutely heaving.

I am going to try to take advantage of this and get to MOSI for a ride on Planet and then to the east lancs to see how things are going.
Perhaps they might put double trams on.

I went to Manchester on the Saturday free day and there were usual single trams which weren't actually all that busy considering it was a Saturday.

However, there were no posters at stops mentioning the free travel meaning that a lot of regular passengers may have been unaware of the offer.

The ticket machines were disabled during the freebies and station announcements made every ten minutes, but yeah the machines just said "out of service" on them so quite a few confused faces!

A lot of the smaller stops don't seem to have working PA systems.

The fact that Metrolink have fines of up to £100 for fare evasion would mean most people wouldn't want to board a tram without a ticket if they were unaware of the free travel.

Every single station had multiple posters up advertising the free travel, including on the ticket machines.

The trams had posters in them for weeks in advance.

Metrolink web site had the details on it.

Local newspapers, television and radio had many reports on the free travel.

Regular announcments were made on the PA on every station.

What additionally could have been done to let the public know about the free travel?

If that was the case it was only done for the second free travel day after confusion during the first free travel day.

On the free Saturday travel day I did:
Altrincham-Cornbrook-Harbour City
Harbour City-Piccadilly Gardens
Market Street-Piccadilly
Piccadilly-Altrincham

The only stop I saw a notice at was Altrincham where a hand written sign by the ticket office staff had been put up.

I was at Altrincham station for 40 minutes before getting the train back to Knutsford and there wasn't any PA annoucements by Metrolink. I was also at Harbour City and Cornbrook for more than 10 minutes and again there was no PA annoucements.

While waiting at Piccadilly someone asked me if I knew where they could get a ticket from as the ticket machines were out-of-order. I tried to explain to them it was a free travel day but they wouldn't believe me without first asking staff. I looked around for a poster explaining the free travel at Piccadilly and there wasn't one.

The Metrolink website and local media did report it for the Saturday but that was it.

To be fair it wasn't very well done.

I didn't see anything in the newspaper, or on TV / radio. I saw it on their website but many would not have done so. There was no posters or ads. The new ticket machines on Piccadilly Gardens had a tiny sticker most people missed.

I had to explain to a large number of people on both days about the free travel. Indeed some people tend not to believe or get confused.

The station announcements DID seem to work on most stations I visted however.

Think you have totally forgotten the reason for these free days.

It was to say thanks to REGULAR travellers who had been so inconvienienced over the summer, not to over crowd the trams with people who rarely travel on Metrolink.

Those people who had been inconvienced have no one but themselves to blame I'm afraid if they were not aware of the free travel that was repeated reported on Key 103, Smooth and Centuary along with in the MEN on several occassions, on BBC North West Tonight and on Granada Reports.

So the occassional user may not have seen any of the high level of adverts, the free travel was not aimed at saying thanks to them.

Those who travel on the trams regularly would have seen the numerous signs on platforms and trams for the fortnight leading up the the free travel.

I'm sorry, but if people pay no attention to the local media and walk around with their eyes shut it's their own fault when they do not realise something is happening locally.

The MEN for example carried four seperate articles on the free travel......


http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...._of_free_trams

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....freetravel_day

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....ams_freeforall

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....ram_travellers

But what makes you think that every Metrolink user listens to one of those stations? I usually listen to XFM or Absolute Radio.

As I've pointed out I used 6 stops on the first day of the free travel and only one of them had a notice saying about the free travel - that's the best way of informing regular passengers and they failed to use that method properly.

Based on posts on different web forums most regular passengers weren't aware of it prior to turning up on the day and a lot of rail enthuaists from outside the Manchester area went to Manchester to get a free tram ride.

I don't use the tram on a daily basis but have suffered plenty of incovenince on them - including a 45 minute delay at Bury, an hour delay at Eccles before I had to get a replacement bus service as the overhead electrics had failed and being on heavily overcrowded trains between Altrincham and Manchester when the Metrolink service has failed.

You're missing the point.

Joe Bloggs arrives in Manchester from London on a business meeting. He needs to get from Piccadilly Station tram station to Manchester Victoria, for example.

He's not seen any adverts, he hasn't even been aware of the situation. He is presented by 3 out of service ticket machines.

How is that his fault?

I'm sorry but you can't blaim regular people for coming onto the platform, trying to buy a ticket and not understanding why. Most of the people I spoke too ARE regular travellers as well as out of town commuters and chaos was evident among both demographics.

People don't watch Granada reports, or adverts, or read adverts, or local news, beleive it or not, and to some it isn't applicable. I don't watch or read any of those things and with good reason, I've neither the time or the inclination. Call me uncultured if you like but local news bores me stiff.

You need to let people know ON THE STATION at the time of travel that they don't need to buy a ticket, regardless of any other factor or the reason for the free travel. Simply putting the message "FREE TRAVEL TODAY" instead of "OUT OF SERVICE" would have helped.

Also, as a regular tram traveler I don't recall seeing one noticeable advert for free tram travel. I saw a few tiny stickers, that's it. As a resident of Manchester I would not call the advertising high level, I was only aware as I make it a point to follow railway news, no other reason.

They had people at Piccadilly and at the larger stations telling people it was free and announcing tram destinations (while gathering passenger data on free usage by hand since it couldnt be calculated through ticket sales)

Watch - hello - good to see you ;)

(Metrolink from elsewhere :) )

Hi Kurt went looking for Rolling Stock news and stopped by here. Seems to be quite a bit of local knowledge of the area round here.

I was just pulling two station names at random.