I can't blame (Greater) Manchester for looking at Metrolink for the future.
Heavy rail takes a long time to get anything done (look at how long it's taken to arrange a passenger service over a relatively short existing bit of railway to Blyth compared to how Metrolink was built without major delays), heavy rail is expensive to build infrastructure for (compared to Metrolink), heavy rail requires large ongoing subsidies (forty pence per passenger mile for Northern services, whilst Metrolink runs without operational subsidy?), heavy rail can see the assets taken away for use elsewhere (e.g. the Manchester area lost the relatively modern TPE 170s because they were secured by a TOC down south, but nobody else is going to get their hands on Mancunian trams), heavy rail can mean that Mancunians play second fiddle to longer distance passengers (e.g. the terrible service at local stations on the Airport line because all those Newcastle/ Glasgow/ Cleethorpes passengers are apparently more important), Metrolink means that you can increase frequencies much easier...
Makes sense that they'd look at some kind of light rail based solution to their problems.
Maybe we should focus on tackling the complicated/expensive issues with heavy rail, sure, but you could upgrade an unnelectrified line to Metrolink and have five trams an hour running along it in the time you we still knee deep in fundraising/ planning to try to run a half hourly EMU along it.
Metrolink isn't going to solve every problem but there are a number of lines where the frequency (at at leat some stations) is held back by finite heavy rail infrastructure (e.g. paths into central Manchester, terminus space), electrification isn't going to happen any time soon, you can't divert the route easily to serve town centres the way that Oldham/ Rochdale have benefited from a service that actually runs into the heart of the town rather than half a mile away.
However there are three problems with conversion:
- Firstly, the tram infrastructure in central Manchester is already pretty busy - so it might not just be the cost of converting a line to Metrolink, you might have to consider the need for a third city centre crossing
- Secondly, as the existing routes are already matched up so you might have to try to pair up new lines (e.g. do one from the west and you need to one from the east to match up and run through to)
- Thirdly, the twelve minute frequency seems locked into Metrolink, so you'd have to consider whether a train service would be replaced by a twelve minute tram or a six minute tram
Conversion of the Glossop/Hadfield line would be more complicated, as the disused track bed of the former quadruple line between Ashburys and Guide Bridge would be need to be reinstated, with the line kept separate from NR through Guide Bridge station and as far as Flowery Field station. It would quash any possibility of reinstating the Woodhead route as a main line railway
Stopping the nostalgists from their "Woodhead" obsession seems a good enough reason to salt the soil and introduce trams to me!
More seriously though, the Glossop line is a long way out of Manchester but that's no reason why you can't order stock better suited to such journeys - ask a tram manufacturer for more comfortable seats and a toilet and they'll do it.
Pros:
- It's pretty slow for a train line (e.g. over half an hour for about a dozen miles as the cross flies), so it's not as if a fast accelerating tram is going to mean a significantly slower journey.
- Capacity into Piccadilly means you're not going to find additional paths for heavy rail to Glossop
Cons:
- The Hadfield bit of the "triangle" - I could see a twelve minute tram replacing a half hourly train as a simple Manchester - Glossop service, but what do you do with Hadfield? Keep the existing set up with a twelve minute frequency? Run a six minute tram as far as Dinting with separate branches? Complicate things further with some services running Manchester - Hadfield - Glossop - Manchester and others running Manchester - Glossop - Hadfield - Manchester? Abandon the Dinting - Hadfield section entirely and run a dedicated guided busway instead? A Local Bus For Local People?
- The existing station is already very central for Glossop, so there's not much scope for expansion there - it doesn't serve Hyde very well but I can't see an easy way to rectify that
- The low numbered platforms at Piccadilly aren't a major bottleneck (compared to Castlefield etc), so can cope with the current two trains per hour (just as long as you don't want to increase the frequency)
So I'm not convinced about Glossop - it doesn't offer much that the train can't (unless you need to increase capacity/frequency significantly - but there's not significant housing growth that I'm aware of) - and Hadfield complicates things a bit too much
I guess one reason for converting the Glossop line would be that you were doing the "Marple via Hyde" line too (i.e. you're combining the costs of converting the line as far as "Hyde" between two lines, so cheaper than doing things separately)?
Conversion of the Atherton line would improve the services on it, but is fraught with practical issues at both ends of the line. Metrolink would need to run on street from Salford Crescent to the city centre and it isn't obvious where to site the track and how/where services would join the existing Metrolink network. There is also the issue of the section between Hindley and Wigan, as a double track heavy rail route would need to be retained between these points
Atherton seems the best line to convert IMHO.
The current line is pretty poor at actually serving Salford/ Atherton etc - it's stuck alongside golf courses/ fields/ industrial estates rather than properly serving the places that the station names suggest it does
It's very low down the pecking order in terms of paths into central Manchester
The Southport frequency and the "via Bolton" frequency match up, so you could remove the Atherton trains whilst Wigan retains heavy rail services
Removing paths through Salford Crescent and the flat junctions would improve reliability for other services
Maybe a six minute service as far as the current Atherton station, every twelve minutes into the actual town and every twelve minutes carrying on to Wigan?
Could combine it with conversion of the Leigh busway (as far as Irlam), if we are talking medium-term?
The Glossop/Hadfield and Warrington Central routes also extend into neighbouring areas outside the Greater Manchester boundary, which could cause issues.
Metrolink runs beyond Merseyside, Sheffield's Supertram runs through Derbyshire - GMPTE/TfGM have had powers over public transport in the north western bits of Derbyshire for a while
The low hanging fruit has already been plucked.
...some may say the same about re-opening "Beeching" lines I guess - maybe we should forget about them too?
