Metrolink Trams

As someone who doesn’t drive I use a lot of public transport, and I’m a fan of anything on rails after years of suffering on buses.
The trams now have free WIFI which is such a great idea, makes delays on the tram much less noticeable, although it would be nice if it were at the stations too. I find all the staff are super cheery and actually smile, unlike my previous experiences with anyone part of the Stagecoach group. Don’t think I’ve ever had a driver on another form of public transport deliver a happy message over the tannoy before setting off before.
Occasionally there are delays, but I find you’re kept much more informed than with train delays, and the Metrolink app is pretty good at warning you of works or where delays are occurring — much like the London Underground.
The trams themselves are kept very clean, with staff doing a quick walk through at each terminus whilst the driver changes ends. The ticket prices are relatively affordable considering the speed of journey and regularity of trams, though I would like the option of buying a monthly pass at the self service machines as its not always convenient to get to a Travel Shop.

When they aren’t doing maintenance on the lines the metrolink is probably the most efficient way of getting from one side of Manchester to the other. Now i’ve moved to Baguley it is very handy having a tram stop within 5 minutes of my house to take me into Manchester without the need for a taxi. Usually purchase a day ticket with my girlfriend which costs £6.20 which is excellent value for both of us. Trams are usually pretty clean and the new stations are well lit which is a good thing.

I have only started using the trams a few months ago and they are fantastic they are always on time and come every 20 mins from my stop but more frequently from other lines. The station is 10 mins walk from my house so it’s great for when I’m going into manchester. They do a great value family ticket I think it’s £6.20 for a day it’s for 2 adults and 2 children but me and my partner use it it’s s lot cheaper then getting 2 tickets.

After going to our first Unilocal event down media city way the metro link was the best way to get there from piccadilly.
After going down the escalator at piccadilly it looked like we were in the London underground, after waiting only a couple of minutes the tram arrived and surprisingly it wasn’t busy so we managed to get a couple of seats.
We left the station to emerge back in daylight, the tram was clean, bit of a bumpy ride but a nice ride to media city.
On the way back after the event we didn’t wait long for another tram, will definitely use the service more.

The Metrolink is a fast way to travel around Manchester, you can get from place to place in top speed, You can get from Manchester Airport to Shudehill in under an hour, with only 1 change and you can go from Rochdale station to Oldham in 20 minutes.
The Metro link is building slowly and is not in certain areas yet like Middleton and the Universities when they are pointless stops like Kingsway Business Park, adding to another high amount of stops in Rochdale centre, I need to say they need to open the route to multiple cities, instead of numerous amounts of stops in towns like Rochdale and Oldham, extending it to far away locations in Greater Manchester like Bolton and Wigan would be fantastic but is highly unlikely, but still if you can get from Ashton under Lyne to Manchester Airport they could do a Wigan or Bolton link, even if it is similar to the one from Ashton to the Airport which takes 93 minutes with a change at Cornbrook,
The Metro link goes to Manchester’s 2 major football stadiums like the home to the champions, Manchester City (Etihad Campus) and Old Trafford.
I prefer this to the London Underground because instead of being Underground, you get to see the sites of Manchester’s busy town centre without being in the squash of a busy day in Piccadily, the great sights really help up the rating.
The Metro link is one of the best public transport modes in Greater Manchester but still widening its stops to the likes of Wigan, Middleton and other Greater Manchester towns would help to push the rating up but for now the frequent, fast trains I feel only deserve 4 stars but hopefully I can push it up to 5 stars in a few years when they have expanded even further. I do feel this rating is a little generous as I’d prefer to give 3.5 stars, but I say it deserves 4 stars more than 3.
UPDATE: I feel 3 stars is more worthy as although they go at a good speed at 50 mph, it can sometimes be a longer, more drawn out way of transportation and much more does need to be done, especially at some stations which are awful with no shelter, on little lines and with no working time boards. I still feel 3 stars is quite a generous rating, but is more deserved than just two. For example Altrincham and Manchester Airport which should only be a 10 – 15 minute drive over 5 miles ends up taking nearly an hour as you have to go to Altrincham to Cornbrook, and then all the way back on the route you have just been on. I do feel they should do something to connect places like these, which are on the metrolink but take so long when they should be so quick.
UPDATE: Metrolink trams tend to get far to crammed especially on lines which only have one station, which can cause a big trouble, installing more seats and wifi which does not fail in huge crowds would be a next step, along with the other negatives I have mentioned in this review, I feel that this originally 4 star rating deserves a rating around the two mark.

Metrolink Manchester! Well heres my quick review of these trams, When they run on time and when its off peak they are great to use! But at peak times and when they are running late or have a problem on the line-​ussually points failure at Cornbrook they are really really bad!!! At peak times you can hardly board the tram and have to wait for the next one which are usually every 12 minutes, the cost of traveling on this pretty rubbish service is also not great! But it does make it easier to get around the city and the outskirts so i guess ill have to stick with it, i guess its better than the bus though!

What an absolutely excellent, cost effective, eco-​friendly easy to use and reliable public transportation system. Because of these Trams, the city center isn’t polluted by car emissions. Sure wish we had such a blessed system in Texas.

Pretty simple tram stop. No thrills with only part of it kept covered from the elements but this is definitely one of the busier stops on the tramline. Right next door to the venue itself so no big problem there. Only used as a stop on the Eccles and Bury-​Altrincham lines.

The Manchester Metrolink runs a fairly good service in and around the city. Certain lines are over worked but plans for expansion may make the rush hour a little less hectic. There aren’t many staff on hand to provide travel advice however, and I can imagine this makes the system a little difficult to navigate if you are a tourist.

No, no, no. I need to take to tram to work everyday. I mean I can walk if I want to, but when you don’t get to sleep enough, the last thing you want, is to walk to town. So, I live 3 minutes from the tram. You need to get there, to buy your ticket. Lucky you, if the tram is there, you need to wait for another 12 minutes, cuz otherwise you might get a lovely fine. All you need to start the day in the mood.
So many ticket machines are so crap, that you want to smash them all sometimes. Some of them don’t accept notes, and maybe all you have in your wallet is a note!!! Or your card, so therefore, you need to go to the nearest cash machine, grab a tenner and pay for the ticket. A pain. Prices? Expensive. As in, really expensive. Think about it. You can travel from city centre to Fallowfield with 1.10 or something. From Salford Quays to Piccadilly (7 minutes maximum on the tram) you pay 2 quid single or 2.2 for return. I find it expensive. If they drop the prices, I’ll be happy to actually travel all day everyday by tram, without complaining at all. Oh, and before I forget, the staff is mean all the time. When they are checking for tickets, they believe they are cool and awesome, and they are going to make us buy tickets next time. The story… will continue…

GMex metrolink is as basic as one can be: no extensive shelters (like at Heaton Park), stripped bare of anything unnecessary. The station serves as a stop on Eccles and Bury-​Altrincham lines. What makes it stand out is how you get to and from there.
If you are approaching or exiting the station from GMex or Whitworth Street West, you do this via a long staircase that connects the space by Revolution bar in Deansgate Locks with the platform.
And if you are in the middle of Castlefield, you can take a spiral staircase just outside the Mamucium Roman fort. Whichever way of getting and from the station you choose, a good view of the surrounding roofs and roads awaits you. Certainly something to contemplate on your way back from work…

I very rarely use the trams for some reason, even though I spend a great deal of time roaming about Greater Manchester as part of my course, choosing instead to navigate with a series of Stagecoach buses. When I do use then, however, I find them a bit of a mixed bag.
It can be a pain trying to get a ticket in time when there’s a queue and the machine’s being fussy, and you do not want to risk traveling without one because the damn metro staff are like harpies, waiting to pounce on anyone deemed to be taking tram travel for free. But they are pretty quick, and quirky.
Also, does anyone else find it strange that trams go down the same roads as cars sometimes? No? Just me then.

Here in Manchester, we like to think we’ve got everything London has, just on a smaller scale. Giant Ferris wheel, a bit littler. Albert Square, without Pat Butcher. Oxford Road, less retail, more boho studentville. A Piccadilly but without the brightly coloured New York-​esque electronic brand screens. A tube system, but above ground, with strange and rather slow little carriages that make the same noises as steam trains. Hang on. We’ve invented a surreal transport system! Beat that, capital!
To be fair, our tram system is pretty endearing as far as I’m concerned. I’ve used them a few times since moving to Manchester and I can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed. This is a part of Mancunian heritage, so we shouldn’t make fun of how slow they are, or the hit and miss ticket machines, or the seemingly archaic staff, or the fact that I don’t have one within a reasonable distance of my apartment. Hey, it’s all the way at the other end of Deansgate! The sun may be shining over Manchester now, but puh-​lease, I’ve run across Deansgate in the rain. That ain’t no picnic.
They’re actually a good little commute option, the trams. People needing to get to Altrincham, Sale, Timperley, Eccles and many other dormitory villages around the city centre won’t be disappointed. The Eccles one stops right outside the big Morrisons and there’s even a Weaste stop — doesn’t sound like the nicest place in the world but those clever property boffins have been developing some great apartments over there at cheap-​as-​chips prices.
If nothing else, the tram is fun to ride if you’ve got little else to do. And as has already been pointed out, they’ll run in all weathers compared to a lot of public transport. What have you got to lose, apart from a couple of squid?

After getting a temp job in Altrincham I realised this would either involve an incredibly long bus journey or a walk down to Stretford and a tram ride which would get me there in minutes.
However,
— it was pretty expensive (£3.50 peak return)
— the ticket machines rarely functioned as they should
— I often missed the tram due to a huge queue of school kids trying to use the machine
— on several occasions I had to get off at Timperley and wait for another tram due to technical problems
— the service wasn’t great when it snowed
— on one occasion I had to walk from Navigation Road to Altrincham due to a signal failure
On a positive note,
— I discovered it was much cheaper to buy a weekly pass from the travel office, which I could then upgrade to cover buses too (£6.50 extra)
— it usually got me there on time
— I got a sense of satisfaction when all the fare dodging scallies got caught (almost every day)
— the trams were pretty empty, at least compared to the packed commuter trams heading from Altrincham towards Manchester
Hopefully after the introduction of the new trams, the ticket machine upgrades and the digital information boards which have been proposed the Metrolink will be better than a-​ok. It should probably learn a few lessons from its efficient European counterparts.

Trams trams trams, apparently trams revolutionised transport in central Manchester. I’m not so sure to be honest there is still a lot of cars in Manchester which are an absolute pain in the arse to cyclists such as me and my mate (who got clipped by a tram today, by the way). The trams serve a few major spots and you can get either side of a compass in one of them.
Don’t get on without a ticket though otherwise you face the very real chance of getting arrested by the tram police (happened to a friend). The trams go to Altrincham and all over the show really, if only more people used them hopefully we wouldn’t have to dodge traffic on our bikes for years to come…

I’m so glad the Metrolink is up and running again. When I first moved to Manchester last summer, the place was a mess of engineering works, boarded up platforms and diggers. The work seemed to take over the whole feel of the city.
And then, thankfully and suddenly, it was all gone. I could finally see what the Metrolink was all about. I’ve used it a fair few times to get to work at Lancashire County Cricket Ground, and it made the 25 minute drive and annoyance of finding a parking space ludicrous when I could do the same journey from Shudehill in just 15 minutes.
It’s quite annoying that the ticket machines don’t seem to give change, and the displays are quite hard to read. Apparently they are replacing these ticket machines soon, so I wait with baited breath for an improvement.
If you’re a pedestrian, the trams can be quite dangerous as you’re always crossing over the lines when you walk about town, so make sure you look both ways. Otherwise you’ll get a very loud honk from a tram and everyone will look at you.

Bless the Metro.
Whilst most of the trains and buses around Manchester city centre have ground to a halt because of the snow, the Metro is still running tickety-​boo. There are reports of the Eccles line closing temporarily but as I type the rest are still transporting people to and from Old Trafford, Sale and other suburbs at their normal zippy speed. Of course some ticket machines are out of order and some still don’t have any change but what the heck, these are minor grumbles. The Metro is still cleaner, cheaper (Return tickets cost approx £2.20) and more efficient than other transport modes like London Tube!
Call it great engineering, clever forward planning or balls made of steel — whatever the reason, it’s good to know there’s one North West transport company that are able to confront The Big Freeze head on!

The Metrolink. Manchester’s answer to London’s Underground… what a joke.
There are just so many things that the Metrolink does wrong!
First of all, closing the tracks constantly with all sorts of different excuses about maintenance, renovation, track upgrading, blah blah blah!
It’s still the same crappy service, ticket machines which do not take cards and rarely accept notes, no conductor so you have to buy a ticket before you board or else (WHY do they not just change this already?!), smelly old trams which are just not adequately set out for the level of business that they get… the list of complaints goes on.
What’s most annoying is that they keep promising a better service.
The trams links in the city centre have been closed for months and have just re-opened…has anyone noticed the difference?! Not really? Sure they dug up and relaid the track, we saw them doing that but has it made any difference to the service?!
They have promised all new trams and ticket machines by Autumn which have not yet materialised… you better get your skates on Metrolink, you’ve not got long left.