Would you see two to three years inconvenience that would attach itself to the current "Top of the Fantasy Pops" Oxford Road line so beloved of many Manchester Metrolink aficionados as naught but a mere inconvenience to the large Manchester University campus area, the area near to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the existing changes to bus routes that use the Oxford Road corridor to places far outwith that area, the side road connections that carry many bus routes, the Curry Mile, etc. Have Corporation Street and Cross Street been naught in the way of disrupting the commercial and retail life of the Manchester inner-city core? I still await the promised area regeneration that the East Manchester line was said to bring, especially in the Holt Town area, which looks as it would not be out of place in "Paradise Lost".
Would these be the same "Most Mancunians" who were given the chance to have a two-ring congestion charge system in order to launch a great expansion to the Manchester Metrolink system and then voted overwhelmingly against it in that referendum some years ago. Are you saying that the Angel of the Lord has appeared to them and opened their eyes and "Damascene Moments" have made overnight conversions of their past views.
My view; (I can't speak for Altfish).
- I do not think that a the supposed benefits of tramline along Oxford Road would be worth the disruption of construction - and consequent long-term traffic diversions;
- I do think that the improved resileince and access through the city centre will prove to have been well worth the disruption along Cross Street and Corporation Street. The key difference being that these roads were already closed to through traffic anyway.
- Last time I looked, the East Manchester line corridor had benefitted from; a major extension to the Etihad Stadium, large scale investment in Ashton Moss, almost continual residential construction around New Islington stop, and an extensive rebuilding around Ashton town centre. Holt Town is probably the only stop that has not yet been assoicated with major inward investment.
- I suspect you are right that a further congestion charge vote would not be likely to produce a different result (at least not yet); but that is a different issue. Mancs may still think Metrolink 2CC investment is worth the two-years disruption, without thinking that it would be worth a congestions levy.