Transport for Greater Manchester has announced today that work on the multi-million pound transformation of the Manchester Victoria Metrolink stop is set to start on Friday, 21 February.
The nine-month project will see the stop completely redesigned and expanded to provide additional platforms and tracks, accommodating the new Second City Crossing and wider network expansion, in conjunction with the transformation of the railway station by Network Rail.
As a result of this work there will also be temporary changes to Metrolink services for the duration of the project which will see trams not longer stopping at Victoria for the duration.
Instead passengers are being asked to use Shudehill, the next city centre stop along and just a short walk for connections with Victoria’s rail services and the Phones 4u arena.
Every Bury to Altrincham service will be served by double trams from start to end of service,boosting capacity at the busiest times and a shuttle tram will run between Bury and Abraham Moss every 12 minutes, catering for approximately a third of all journeys made on this line. As a result, passengers travelling to stops between Bury and Abraham Moss should board the dedicated shuttle service, to ensure there is as much room as possible for city-bound passengers travelling in the busy morning and evening peaks.
Trams between Rochdale and East Didsbury are unaffected excepting that they will not stop at Victoria.Trams from Ashton will run to Eccles
Peter Cushing, TfGM’s Metrolink Director, said: “The Victoria project is incredibly exciting, it complements the wider transformation of the station but also plays an essential part of Metrolink’s Second City Crossing development and on-going expansion of the network.To ensure this is done in a safe manner, we have to run on a single line of track. Currently, 15 trams an hour call at Victoria in each direction – that’s 30 overall, which simply cannot be sustained when we’re running on just a single line
