Closing that entire section of Metrolink will have dire efects on south Manchester. The Airport will lose it's link as well.
There is also the matter of the Manchester Metrolink line in process of construction to the intu Trafford Centre to add to the equation, once completed, that will pass through the Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop, that will offer through routes direct into the core of the city and beyond northwards, which once completed, will see tram services from Manchester Airport, East Didsbury, Altrincham, Media City UK, intu Trafford Centre and Eccles passing through Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop.
I cannot understand how anyone charged with the running of the Manchester Metrolink tram network, those using the existing tram lines as a mode of transport, or the varied users of the Manchester Central complex, can even give such a retrograde step proposed by this somewhat strange desire the time of day.
Before we know it, there will surface ever stranger demands for the commercial re-openings of both the Rochdale and the Ashton canals linking to the commercial reopening of the Bridgewater Canal as a 21st century mode of transport at the cost of current city core transport modes.