Irregular - 3tph an hour can hardly be described as irregular and 2tph stop at Deansgate. Cheaper and convenient yes, but easier to get the 1tph from Didsbury direct to Eccles, taking 26mins if time matters to you.
Height difference between the railway and the Metrolink - for people who have clearly never used the Metrolink recently in Manchester, the railway and station is on a viaduct for a mile out and the Metrolink is underground here.
The train service from East Didsbury is irregular, in contrast to the regular tram service starting there which now runs every 6 minutes, with trams every 12 minutes on the Eccles line. In order to use the train service, one has to look up a timetable, and take note of where the train calls in central Manchester. The train times may not be particularly convenient for when one wishes to travel. It is not a simple to use "turn up and go" service, unlike Metrolink.
There is no room there, there is the Manchester ROC signalling centre there at Ashburys on one side and the Siemens Longsight train depot on the other side of Gorton Road.
The tram route would not have to use Great Ancoats Street, it could join Fairfield Street/Ashton Old Road nearer to the city centre, albeit 1 or 2 buildings might need to be (partly) demolished to access the eastern portal of the Piccadilly tram station. There is no real difference between running trams at 10 tph mixed with ordinary traffic along Ashton Old Road and running them at 10 tph mixed with ordinary traffic along Ashton New Road, which already has a street tramway. Similarly there would be no need to close Gorton Road to other traffic. Where there's a will, there's a way; it would be a tramway, not a heavy rail line.
Any closer to the city centre and you hit the site of the HS2 underground/overground station at Piccadilly, which is currently Network Rail's offices,.
GM needs to look to other examples of transport implementation failures as it and every other conurbation would when extending a transit system. Either way, whichever way you get to Ashton Old Rd, it is not sensible to run trams down a heavily congested primary A road.
There is no need for expensive tunnelling, either in Ardwick or under the city centre. I don't see the problem of running trams for a relatively short distance along Ashton Old Road. In order to reach the current Piccadilly tram station, trams could run along Fairfield Street and then branch off via Andrews Street, Travis Street and Sheffield Street to join the existing Metrolink line where it crosses Sheffield Street on the level. This area is mostly industrial and Google Streetview does not show any evidence of expensive apartments, so while the route might need straightening, few if any large buildings would need to be demolished. While I have suggested one option, if elements of it are sub-optimal, there are likely to be alternative options to build the link at street level without tunnelling, due to the ability of trams to interwork with other traffic. A tram tunnel under Manchester city centre is likely to cost well in excess of £100m at today's prices, not £40m to £50m.
It depends where TfGM put it. 20millon for a 1 mile tram spur down to Ashburys that actually makes journeys longer and more uncomfortable is a crappy deal. It's going to be at least 10 mins from Ashburys in to the CC on a tram, on a current Glossop/Rose Hill service you're already in the Flowery Field part of Hyde in Tameside by then.
Where would you route it? Out to Ardwick? The tram to train change is no more than 5 mins for most lines at Picc anyway and those who wanted the tram from most of the areas near the Glossop/Marple Rose Hill/ New Mills Central services. In a couple years, bus/tram/rail fares will be properly integrated in GM, so anyone wanting a tram from Ashton direction can grab a 53 Orbit at Ashburys and take a 3 min hop to Velopark Metrolink at no extra cost.
It’s already been decided where Piccadilly metrolink is going, which is to be under the HS2 station. We don’t know the route from Piccadilly metrolink & ‘Piccadilly East’ to the line to Guide Bridge, but it is a safe bet to say it will be segregated from road traffic.
Yes, in a tram train tunnel as TfGM want! They are going to have send it towards Ashburys/Ardwick if they want to serve the Rose Hill line via Reddish ( I think the 2tph Sheffield/New Mills services will be sent via Guide Bridge and Hyde.
But is any of this funded? Surely if NPR has been scaled back to save money schemes like this and the RYR wishlist have no chance of progressing?
which at the moment is just a wishlist. Sorry to be so negative but given the current state of the public finances I don't see it or the equivalent one over here happening
How else do you connect Picc and Guide Bridge/Rose Hill via Reddish? There's no point in building a tunnel or other substantial alignment between the 2 to connect with a slow tram which will be replaced in 15 to 20 years time with a tram train tunnel. A direct conversion of Rose Hill and Glossop to tram train from Picc main station would have absolutely no benefit apart from winding up people from Derbyshire and Tameside by making them sit on a ****ty slow tram instead of a fast Class 323 or faster 195.
But the 323 or 195 would be stopping every few minutes anyway. They aren't going to get anywhere near their top speed.
It would still be much slower when there is no need for it to be. If you want the tram, change at Picc. It is easy and you get a better variety than you ever would towards Ashton. Where are you going to put it on street? There are no cheap options for this and all are completely pointless because they do not release any capacity on any line.
It appears you are ignoring all the changes to this area due to the HS2 plans. You talk about required demolitions for example, but neglect to mention these buildings are already slated to go anyway due to HS2. Though it's probably no more than a 'vision' at this stage, the Piccadilly HS2 SRF depicts the line from Piccadilly to Ashburys rising to a viaduct parallel to HS2's, which will take you almost the whole way there.
No it wouldn't. There would be no wait at Picc for a connecting tram, and on average, there would be less of a wait at the start of the journey, because it would be 5tph rather than 2.
Not if you are of limited mobility, have heavy baggage etc.
Everything starts with a strategic view. You can’t just reduce every proposal to being “just a wish list” when all plans need to start from more humble beginnings. We also can’t conclude that we can’t invest in infrastructure based on public debt and the deficit, because it doesn’t relate so easily to the merits of funding various projects. Nothing anywhere would be built ever if we did, and this is not unique to the UK.
That is the current plan. I thought the preferred plan was an underground station under Terminus House.
Not everyone wants a tram. Anywhere in the Stockport/Bolton/Warrington/Liverpool/Salford direction, you'll want a train because it will be much faster overall.
The main trainshed is not the issue really, for many terminating services, it is a perfectly decent solution.
What use have London/Mcr South commuter services got to going through to the side. Picc is a decent terminus for these flows. The airport sure and 1 per hour through from each direction south/east of Picc (Sheffield/Lincoln/Cleethorpes/Crewe/Stoke-on-Trent/Brum), but the majority of passengers on the others almost always are going to Mcr City Centre or nearby areas which can be accessed by walking/tram/bus. That project would be more about making regional services across Mcr more frequent and connecting North of Mcr services from Vic/North WCML/the Chat Moss to the aforementioned South of Mcr destinations.
