History of the Manchester Metrolink 

The Fallowfield Line was used for a light rail demonstration when Metrolink was being planned. This used Docklands Light Railway No 11 which was delivered directly to Manchester for the purpose fitted with a pantograph. The DLR uses a third rail system.

The child geek in me used to go from oldham to manchester to watch the building of the metrolink in the early 90s. Its amazing to look back how different the city centre was before the metrolink.

Watched this in 2020, great video David!

I love this video. Incredibly interested and well edited. Great job. Love it

Man, I wish other cities like Leeds and Bristol had something like the metrolink

Well done, David! Keep creating such tram and rail films, who about the other UK & Irish cities? Look forward to hear more from you.

Great Video. I’m impressed that Manchester’s Metrolink System has had so many upgrades. The Supertram in Sheffield, which has so much potential, has only had 1 extension - that being the Tram-Train service- since it was opened in 1994. I guess it just comes down to funding formulae😢

Really great documantary video with a lot of well-founded information of Manchester public passenger transport Metro-Link. Thank you very much. Good luck to you and best greetings from Germany. Günter.

Hi David. Liked that as I live in Manchester and love the metrolink especially now it goes to Trafford Pk 👍🏻

Brilliant video very informative and I love your passion for all things Rail you really would make a good good TV documentary if you ever got the chance

Amazing Documentary

Great video!!

It is incredible to see both the success of this tram system and its expansion. Living in Leeds it’s deeply frustrating seeing all Leeds failed attempts and the success such a transport system would bring to the city. Perhaps you should do a video on ‘Leeds Failed Rails’?

6:40 THE OLD MAN 😭😭😭

The Ordsall Chord in many ways made trans Pennine travel worse. Because it linked Victoria and Piccadilly they decided to route too many trains between them. Trans Pennine routes that used to do Stalybridge direct to a terminus platform at Piccadilly were re-routed via Victoria and the Ordsall Chord to a through platform at Piccadilly. There are 10 terminus platforms at Piccadilly but only 2 through platforms (one each way) causing huge delays. The result was that the fasted train from Leeds to Manchester Piccadilly took at least 15 minutes longer after the change...

Informative

So many extensions have been built on Metrolink but all Sheffield Supertram has managed was a 2 station extension to a town already served by bus and rail that was delayed for a thousand years

3:47 now that's what I like to see, 2 schemes proposed they do both, 5 years ago, 20 schemes were proposed and about 3 were put forward

...adding a second route between Victoria “AnD sT. PetErS SquARe”... 9:14

Another possible extension would be a convertion of the East Lancashire Railway from Bury to Rawtensall, which would carry the yellow line. They could also do a branch from Rochdale to Shawforth, which would carry the grey line. A possible idea with tram-trains is that the yellow line would be extended on the Hope Valley line to Rose Hill (Marple), and then maybe rebuild the railway line between marple and Macclesfield. They could also extend the purple line to Hadfield or Glossop.

i’m acc rlly worried about 7:46 because trams have loads of volts and can kill you easily if you’re too close. there’s no trams, yes, but still trams are very fast and might not have enough time to stop because it takes so long

Everybody else: Manchester This legend: Manch’ster

How about Stalybridge, via Ashton to Stockport or using the route that the current Parliamentary "Friday Ghost Train" takes from Stalybridge to Stockport, if it is different to Stalybridge via Ashton to Stockport and then link up with trams to the Airport and also Manchester via what is currently the 192 bus route, up Wellington Road, Levenshulme, etc

FREE BUS??? Who decided that was a good name!?!??

Loving your work! Looking forward to watching more of your gubbins. However, it needs to be said that Cannon Street bus station wasn't destroyed by the IRA bomb, but remained in operation until at least 2002, when I'd occasionally use it to get the 17 bus to Middleton. That is unless it was some kind of hallucination, which isn't unlikely for that time...! Carry on though, excellent work.

Coming in 2047 extension to LONDON

december 2020 and that sign on market street still has issues

I'm sure Woodlands Road was open at selected times (Sundays only?) while Abraham Moss was open for a while

I live on the bury tram line

6:41 oh god

great vid but id recommend taking a lesson in sound editing

4:24 just eat tram.

Hello everyone! I'm currently campaigning for the Department for Transport to fund Platforms 15 & 16 at Manchester Piccadilly. You can help by signing the petition --> petition.parliament.uk/petitions/232155

5:24 Or "Gumpty", as I used to called it. Useless!

Metrolink is so slow, it’s ridiculous. Even on the off-street sections.