Ultimately this is the same logic that led to two car 150s in the first place, instead of the previous typical four car DMU formation. Shorter trains more often is better.
If we are going for trams, what is the maximum length of route? Manchester - Oldham - Rochdale is quite a run on a tram, and I am sure people travel by tram from Manchester centre to the stops between Oldham and Rochdale. Do people at the extreme ends of a new tram route regard conversion to a tram as better?
2 self contained lines BR were happy to get rid of at the time. Why do you think every other line built since Phase 1 has been along closed alignments or street running? Because that's what Metrolink should be, not Andy Burnham's wet dream of sticking his fingers into as many pies possible.
This is cool and all, but there are areas of Manchester not served by train or tram that could be served by the tram, such as along the Bury New Road to Prestwich and possibly onwards to Bolton, or along the guided busway to Leigh. This should be where Metrolink's focus is and Burnham's proposed Manchester rail operator can focus on improving the heavy rail in and around Manchester.
The Oldham Loop is overwhelmingly ex BR alignment?
So it was but I still stand my point of using trams to serve areas not served by tram nor train and heavy rail lines can keep their trains.
But some heavy rail lines are better served by light rail. Your argument is essentially 'heavy rail should stay because it is already heavy rail' - and then nothing would ever change. The constraints of Castlefield mean that a turn-up-and-go service cannot be provided on the vast majority of lines around Manchester by heavy rail.
What you do is, you IMPROVE the heavy rail offering via rolling stock and signaling upgrades.
Why must every damn line into Manchester be converted to Metrolink? Have you ever been on the Altrincham line and sat by the articulation point? The noise is deafening. And you can't take your pets or bikes on the trams. Tram Trains could work but kicking the heavy rail off and making a line Metrolink only is a massive no no in my books.
Ultimately signalling can't overcome physics.
We've been doing that since the Sixties and Castlefield isn't any better!
If you're trying to improve public transport, this is basically irrelevant. The rest of your post is not particularly balanced and I'm not going to attempt to address it!
You should be on an RAC forum. There should not eve. be road users in the city centre - that you sympathise with them over mass transit is astonishing.
The Metrolink concept was a solution to the problem of the escalating costs of maintaining some of Manchester's increasingly run-down and antiquated suburban heavy rail network, while continuing rail-based provision of services, with the benefit of cross-link connectivity which the Picc-Vic line would have provided. A similar approach was taken in Tyneside with the Metro system there, although that system is heavy-rail compatible.
Redcar/Cleethorpes didn't demand link to the Airport though and Cleethorpes loses theirs with MRTF. South Yorkshire though are demanding they maintain the link and the Tees Valley mayor was more interested in the link to Manchester than the Airport itself.
I'd say as many as "operationally possible", I.e. those that naturally reach Manchester Airport via Castlefield, which can include some services from Yorkshire via the Ordsall Chord.
Of course, Sheffield isn't an option due to crossing the Piccadilly throat. But the suggestions of cutting all direct Airport service to the Lakes, Scotland, Yorkshire and the North East is barmy.
No. This is the crux of the problem with Manchester's rail services. However inconvenient it may be to some rail users, longer distance trains from Wales, Scotland and North-East England need to be banished from the Castlefield line. Unless this is done, service reliability will not improve.
Then you will ultimately drive people away from the railway. Direct services are always preferable and all you'd be doing is driving the capacity issue to Manchester Victoria, which was struggling to cope Pre-Covid with capacity issues. Nothing solved at all.