I know this is an old thread but;
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The Bury to Rawtenstall line has now become a tourist line with a steam train running on it.
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...This is quite the understatement of the ELR?
And the ELR does offer cheap fares for local residents.
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Running trams to the airport.
This may allow people to get closer to a hotel in Manchester that they will be staying at or to a location for a business meeting. However, the lack of luggage space could cause a problem.
Extending the tramline to the east side of Manchester.
Apparently this was done on a temporary basis during the Commonwealth Games using old American trams. I don’t know anything about the success of this or if it would involve closing any train lines.
Running tram-trains from Manchester City Centre to Northwich, Chester or Crewe.
This would re-link Sale to the National Rail network and allow faster journeys between Altrincham and Manchester. I personally would like to see this happen provided they use Manchester Piccadilly as the terminus rather than Deansgate G-Mex as it would allow better interchange within Manchester.
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As for the Airport, I don't think it should happen at the expense of the current rail connection to the Airport, although perhaps to supplement it, although as you say the luggage issue makes no sense and may have to be addressed with the new trams that are on order.
As for the East Manchester thing, a seccond route through the city IS being proposed but is a long way off - it would however ease congestion significantly and I would welcome that.
Only a single San-Fransisco MUNI car was brought over to Manchester Metrolink and was never used in public service on the basis it didn't work properly.
The third "proposal" is a completely new one and I'm not sure where you got that one from. I've heard of no proposals for "Tram-Trains". They sound like a silly idea anyway.
As for the Metrolink in general, I think the system is in dire need of new trams but the frequency of the service far FAR outweighs that British Rail provided, let us not forget.