Passengers are being urged to plan their journeys as work to make Greater Manchester’s tram network more reliable, resilient and safe for years to come gets under way over the Easter weekend.
As part of a continuing £150m investment in the network, more than 1km of track will be replaced on the Altrincham line. Work will also take place between Trafford Bar and Deansgate-Castlefield, to prepare for full track replacement later in the year.
As a result, there will be no trams on the Altrincham, Eccles and Trafford Park lines all day from Friday 3 to Monday 6 April. The East Didsbury and Airport lines will run to Firswood only. Services on the Rochdale line will terminate at Exchange Square. Other tram service changes include Bury – Ashton-under-Lyne and Bury/Victoria – Etihad Campus.
To keep people moving, replacement buses will run between all the affected stops. Anyone using a replacement bus will need a valid Metrolink ticket and customers will be able to use all existing options including contactless (ensuring they touch in at the start and out at the end of their journey using on-stop card readers), paper tickets or those bought through the app.
Anyone with a one day Bee bus ticket will also be able to travel on a replacement bus, but passengers will not be able to buy a ticket or pay for the fare on the replacement buses.
Frequent Bee Network bus services will also call at bus stops near each tram stop. Travel advice to help plan your journey during this closure can be found on a dedicated section of the Bee Network website.
While the improvements are delivered throughout the summer, a temporary timetable will see trams run every 15 minutes all day, with peak services running every 7. minutes at the busiest times on most lines.
This will allow the operator to undertake one of the biggest recruitment drives in recent times. Taking on and training up dozens of new drivers will add resilience to the workforce which is key to ensuring trams continue to run on time across the network.
Later in April, on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12, no trams will run between Piccadilly Gardens and Ashton-under-Lyne while the track is repaired.
A further weekend closure on the Ashton line, also for track repairs will take place on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday April 26. On these dates no trams will run between Etihad Campus and Ashton-under-Lyne. Tram services from Eccles (via MediaCityUK) will go as far as Etihad Campus.
Repairs will continue until the autumn at various locations, including Monsall, Newton Heath & Moston, Eccles, Derker and Piccadilly Gardens. Trams will not be able to run on some lines while the work is done.
