Manchester

The first, highly successful new system. Not enough street running for my liking, although the Eccles line has a good length, albeit with a rather long distance between stops. The whole thing would be improved by having a brighter livery and by smartening up the shockingly run down stations left over from the heavy rail days. Good to see new extensions being built, although surely a new City Centre line is going to be needed to avoid congestion and delays when all the new lines are operational.

Taken in the early days, when operation was limited to the Victoria to Bury section, 1006 is seen at Victoria Station.








Seen approaching Victoria Station on 19th April 1992 is 1002.









1007 is seen on Balloon Street on 2nd May 1992








1006 is seen on the new tram-only roadway built to link Balloon Street and High Street on 2nd May 1992. This is the sight of the Shude Hill stop, with the Shude Hill Interchange occupying the ground to the right of 1006.






1016 is seen at G-Mex on 2nd May 1992, at which time this was the southern terminus of the system.









1011 is descending the ramp from G-Mex down towards Lower Mosley Street and the St Peter's Square stop on 2nd May 1992.









1006 again on 2nd May 1992 approaching St Peter's Square.









Metrolink 1020 seen on 2nd May 1992 heading towards Victoria Station.








On 6th June 1992, 1005 was photographed at G-Mex








1009 at Altrincham in the early days of operation through to that point.

Manchester Metrolink 2002, one of the new cars bought for the Eccles line at Broadway station on 9th July 2000. At this time the public service terminated at Broadway but the cars continued empty to Eccles, operating a shadow service, returning empty to Broadway to take up public service. I am still baffled as to why only six new trams were bought for the Eccles service, which required six trams in service, with the subsequent adaptation of some of the original trams to operate on the new line, when the Bury and Altrincham services were already needing extra capacity.

2002 stood at Eccles Station, 12th September 2000.












1025 on London Road, 24th September 2007











1010 and 1023 passing on London Road











Also on 24th September 2007, 2003 is seen entering London Road.