Victoria Metrolink opens next week, Market Street closes
Work to modernise the cramped Market Street stop next to the Arndale shopping centre will start on Friday and the stop will close next week while service changes are made as part of Manchester Victoria stop's reopening.
The Manchester Victoria stop is expected to reopen to passengers by Wednesday 18 February, during a week of changes to Metrolink services that will allow an extended programme of work at Victoria and along Balloon Street to be completed.
The final stages of the Victoria project will require a sequence of changes to tram services over the course of half-term week.
Between Saturday 14 and Tuesday 17 February no services will run to or through Victoria. The following services will run, alongside shuttle buses ferrying passengers into the city for drop-off and connections:
- Bury to Crumpsall (with shuttle bus between Crumpsall and Shudehill & Piccadilly Gardens)
- Oldham and Rochdale to Central Park (replacement buses running between Central Park, Monsall, Shudehill & Piccadilly Gardens)
- Altrincham to Piccadilly
- East Didsbury to Piccadilly
- Eccles to Ashton, via MediaCityUK
- Manchester Airport to Cornbrook
By Wednesday 18 February, trams from Bury and Rochdale will terminate at the new Victoria stop.
Services through Victoria to Shudehill, Market Street and beyond are expected to resume from the start of service on Saturday 21 February.
That milestone will result in the restoration of the six-minute service from Bury to the city centre and a direct Victoria to Piccadilly link.
At Market Street, TfGM is carrying out work over the coming months to improve the shelter and appearance whilst making it easier for passengers to move around the busy stop.
The three older bus-style shelters will be removed and replaced later this spring by a longer single shelter spanning the length of the platform. A greatly improved York stone paving finish will also give Market Street a similar look to the new Deansgate-Castlefield stop.
Peter Cushing, Transport for Greater Manchester's Metrolink Director, said: "Market Street is one of the busiest stops on the tram network and is the next in line for a new-look.
"As there's no room to expand it, we are keen to make sure the platform is as streamlined and easy to move around as possible while still offering shelter from the elements.
"We're taking advantage of the service changes while the Victoria stop reopens to make a start on this work and lessen the impact on our customers.
"I'd like to thank customers for bearing with us while we make these improvements to their stop."
The Market Street Metrolink stop will close for the first phase of works from 8pm Friday 13 February and reopen on Saturday 21 February. Work to complete the Market Street stop will take place during spring 2015. The next stage of city centre tram stop improvement work follows this summer, when work begins on a new four platform stop at St Peter's Square.
All the city centre stop improvement works are part of the wider Metrolink Second City Crossing expansion programme (2CC) which will allow more flexible, frequent and reliable tram services to run through the city.
