Metrolink & The Oldham Loop

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Metrolink & The Oldham Loop

Evening All,

After recent comments about the capacity of the metrolink - 4 people per
square metre, I thought I might publish here for your delectation and
delight an article I wrote for RMT News.

Since the article was written originally as a speech in April and a
version of it was published in June, things have moved on a little, and
I've endeavoured to bring the article up to date.

===== Begin =====

For many years, the railways and tramways operated relatively happily
side by side. In the middle of the last century, tramways in our towns
and cities were dismantled, leaving only one, in Blackpool for many
years.

That was until a new generation of tramways, with fancy names like
Supertram, Tramlink or Metrolink came along. In Greater Manchester, the
Metrolink caught the imagination of the press, and there is a massive
campaign for the system to be expanded.

Part of this expansion plan takes in the Oldham Loop. This route forms a
major bulk of the work at Manchester Victoria depot, and Wigan Wallgate
also has a fair chunk of work that incorporates this route. It is true
that the route is in need of investment, but that can be said for whole
swathes of the rail network, but it is equally true that a lot of the
route's ills are as a direct result of the uncertainty surrounding the
route.

Now I'm not going to write against more public transport. However
converting the Oldham Loop is not providing additional public transport,
it is replacing one mode of transport with another, and when the two
modes are compared with an objective eye, it is clear that there are
very few benefits for conversion, in fact less money would be better
spent on improving the rail infrastructure on the route, rather than
wasting millions on chucking trains off the loop and putting trams on
instead.

Metrolink is essentially two very good former rail routes with a bit of
on-street running linking the two. The Bury line was regarded by old
hands as a good paying route, the trains always full. The Altrincham
route was considered no less favourable. Both were showing signs of wear
and tear, yet both were snatched from British Rail and turned into this
private edifice called Metrolink. A phase two route linking Manchester
with the Salford Quays and Eccles was opened roughly ten years later.
This extension has a longer stretch of on-street running which has
attracted it's own problems.

Since the phase one routes were opened, it appears that very little has
been spent on their infrastructure, the system is showing signs of age,
and it will cost in the region of 100 million to bring the
infrastructure back to 1990 standards. Money that they haven't got, but
they want to take yet more railway!

The powers that be in the area are desperate for the route. In 2002 when
the closure order for the Oldham Loop was granted, a document supporting
Metrolink conversion claimed that journey times on trams would be far
quicker than on trains, and that there was far more capacity than a
train.

Let's say those figures were somewhat distorted. The rail capacity
comparison was for the seated capacity of a single 142 set only, and did
not consider the charter capacity figure of 130% of the seating
capacity, and that's a figure routinely broken during the peaks on the
route by the way, the tram capacity figure was for a seated and standing
capacity of four persons per square metre of floor space.

Public support is mixed. On the lower half of the route, there is a lot
of support. On the upper stretches, beyond Shaw, it is quite hard to
find somebody in favour of trams.

The money needed to build the extensions has not been forthcoming, and
there is a campaign in the area called "Get our Metrolink back on
Track." They even re-liveried one of the trams with a whole body logo
with that message on. Ironically, that tram derailed in the middle of
the city centre on shoddy phase one track.

With a closure order granted, the route was essentially on borrowed
time. A pre-Metrolink timetable with only two trains per hour, a shuttle
service from Victoria stopping at all stations to Rochdale only ran from
December to June. Passenger numbers dropped like a stone. The service
reverted to the faster four trains in each direction per hour service
when the Summer timetable came into force, with through trains to Wigan
and Merseyside returning, and hopefully the passengers will return too,
but for how long will this service remain?

We need an end to the uncertainty once and for all, the now you have it,
now you don't is an insult to both rail users and staff.


Cheers,
-- 
Alex Holden
I don't speak for anybody but myself.

Date:Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:22:25 +0100 Author: