TfGM submits funding bid for Metrolink expansion

Transport for Greater Manchester has submitted a funding bid to the Department for Transport to extend the Metrolink’s Airport line.

The Airport line currently terminates at Manchester Airport’s railway station, but the funding bid outlines the potential to extend the line with an additional stop at Terminal 2.

TfGM said the expansion would “align with Manchester Airport Group’s intended expansion to Terminal 2 and the future development of Airport City”.

The Airport line was originally completed in 2014 by contractor MPT, a joint venture between Laing O’Rourke, VolkerRail, and Thales.

TfGM will also look into extending the Metrolink from Terminal 2 to the proposed HS2 station at the airport, which forms part of the wider “Western Loop” initiative, subject to the funding and a business case.

The Western Loop could potentially link the HS2 station at the airport to Wythenshawe Hospital and the surrounding area, and is being considered alongside other options to make the airport a transport hub for the area.

These include proposals for a busway and cycleway linking Altrincham with the airport’s HS2 station; additional bus priority lanes on the existing road network; and an extension of the railway station’s platforms to increase capacity.

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YET always warn visitors NOT to take the tram to CENTRAL Manchester, rather than the train,if they want to make a meeting on time!

By Schwyz

Schwyz if they’re doing that it serves them right. Every city I go to I check which form of transport is best from the airport, it is nearly always the train, never the tram / light rail. Embarrassingly there are airports in the North that aren’t even connected to transport.

By York Street

Extend to Altrincham and then there will be two routes to choose from to the airport.

By Elephant

Perhaps it needs better branding at the airport station. I’m always surprised that people are expected to know where to go. It’s OK for domestic passengers going home to Middlesbrough, but what if you’ve landed from Europe and just want to get to your city centre hotel?

By Edge

This is excellent news

By Chris

A complete waste of time and money. Nobody will use the metrolink to go to the city center when there will be 2 alternatives. The train which is cheaper and faster, and presumably once HS2 is here you will be able to make the journey in about 5 mins.

They should plan a driverless and free-to-use transportation system that connects HS2 terminus, terminal2, train station and terminal 3 rather than extend the metrolink.

By Robert Hardwick

What about the west of Manchester bolton, wigan NO METROLINK services but have to pay to manchester

By Chris gerrard

Robert, Metrolink to the Airport is as much about getting workers to and from the airport and more so Airport City when built as it is ferrying passengers to and from the city centre. it keeps cars off the road so can only be a good thing. Don’t really see what the problem is extending the tram 3 miles further than Wythenshawe to the airport.

By Logenberry

All integrated transport measures should be welcomed so long as they fulfil the needs of both local and international travelling public. We want public transport to meet carbon emissions reduction, to reduce cars on the roads, to improve air quality and the environment. It’s a big ask.. And a key part of that ask is accountability and public consultation. With ‘Big Finance’ (see Carrilion, Capita etc) not being allowed to cause finamcial or societal mayhem while not delivering or being able complete projects they get involved with purely for the excessive profits they hope to squirrel away in offshore accounts. Lots of questions before this gets the go-ahead.

By Hc

That’s all good but Stockport needs linking with the airport via the Metrolink or Rail. We in Stockport are so close to the airport but sometimes it’s easier and quicker to get there from Leeds.

By Ste

A lot of users for the Airport Metrolink are workers within the complex, it offers a near 24hr and cheap service to Airport Terminal One. Why not Two?? Just don’t think of passengers.

By Matrix247

Great news on metrolink proposal to extend airport stations would you ever improving the tram stop at Salford Royal hospital on Eccles New Road it’s a long way from the hospital entrance thanks for an opportunity to voice comment

By Charles Smith

Where’s Stockport in these metrolink Plans?

By Steven Macnaughton

Feels sensible. It’s probably a harsh criticism, but Metrolink seems to go for the low hanging fruit options. I suspect people are waiting for a bolder vision that talks to some of the neglected areas people mention above.

By Rich

There’s a broader question here, and it applies to Crewe as well, we wouldn’t anything as stupid as build HS2 terminals and not materially increase the capacity of the road networks. I live in South West Cheshire, and along with a good chunk Wrexham and North Shropshire the road to Crewe is our access to road and rail to London, parts of the Midlands, and the east of England. There are large new housing developments in Nantwich coming on line too.

By Rich

The Metrolink’s is CRAP. It has been extended to far already and they (Metrolink) cannot run a reliable service as it is.
On the line to Aston they should run every fifteen minutes,but it is more like every twenty minutes.
On a Sunday it should be every twenty minutes, but is more like forty minutes.

By David Adler

Wouldn’t it be a better idea to expand Metrolink network AROUND Manchester so that people who actually live in the Greater Manchester area can commute in and around the place, rather than sit in endless queues of traffic? I live in Worsley and work in Altrincham, 11 miles apart from each other. The Metrolink is useless to me (as it is to thousands of others to the west of Manchester. Using public transport would take me an hour and a quarter to get to work. FOR 11 MILES. But forget about that, spend MILLIONS on helping people visiting from London and farther afield to get from the airport to the centre of Manchester quicker. GENIUS. When are we going to start concentrating on making the lives of regular working people in Manchester a little easier to bear?

By Ben

Ben, if you;re going from Worsley to Alty you can drive, I go from Worsley to Knutsford, it’s not that bad. Taking transport would be pointless.

By PGM

@Logenberry I agree with what you are saying, but what about workers who don’t live in on the airport line.

T3 workers would still remain far away from the station. Hence I see it as giving workers who work in T2 and who live in Whythenshawe a 10 minute shorter commute.

Would love to see something more visionary, like an airport shuttle like they have at Gatwick or extend the network rail line and improve train services which would benefit passengers and workers from other parts of the city alike.

By Robert Hardwick

Robert, workers who lives anywhere on the network can get to the airport, not just those on the airport line or who live in Wythenshawe, extending the tram to Wythenshawe but not a few miles further to the airport would seem utterly bonkers to me.

By Logenberry

M60 orbital line is need urgently

By RS

We should not put up with ‘crap’ service on the Ashton-Under-Lyne line any more than we should except our trams being fitted with cheap and nasty seats (would they put up wit them in the south? Don’t think so). We should demand equal spending per head on transport in the north west as they spend per head in the south east.
Then we could afford to put Worsley on the system go those few extra miles from Wythenshaw to the airport. Have a line from Stockport to the airport etc. In short do all of the above and much more besides.
Have a circular line? I think we should have two.

By Boltontopcat

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