Waiting for a tram and planning journeys across the city and beyond

Now I rather take the Metrolink for granted.

It has been with us since 1992 and its tram lines connect the city centre with Altrincham, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Bury, Didsbury, Eccles and Rochdale, and plenty of places in between.

And soon there will be that extension to the Airport and the Second City Crossing with firm plans and bright thinking to extend the service into Stockport, more of Salford, Trafford, and east to Stalybridge with the prospect in the future of tram-trains over the existing heavy rail network out to Hale, the Hope Valley, Marple, Glossop and Hazel Grove.

All along way from the old Pic-Vic idea and the call for an integrated and efficient system of public transport which in 1968 aimed to improve the north south links and make it easier travel between Piccadilly and Victoria Stations which were unconnected and at opposite ends of central Manchester.

The rest as they say is history and while there can be the Sunday closures and signal faults from time to time, the network is pretty neat, and much faster than the bus.

At which point there will be those that point out that if you don’t live along or close to the track it still has to be the bus, and on certain services the failure to add extra units’ results in overcrowding and the risk of having to stand for part of the journey.

Still I like it and it remains my preferred way of getting into town even if it means first walking from Beech Road down to the metro stop at Morrisons.

What I didn’t know was that our network was the first modern service of its kind in the country beating Sheffield by two years and only preempted by Blackpool’s.

All of which was uppermost in my thoughts as I waited St Peter’s Square for my Jill and Geoff to arrive from Altrincham.

During the wait I clocked the frequency of trams and their different destinations and the sheer number and variety of passengers passing through.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson