Manchester Metrolink
Tram system in Greater Manchester, England / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Manchester Metrolink?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Manchester Metrolink[note 1] is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England.[10] The network has 99 stops along 64 miles (103 km) of standard-gauge route,[1] making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Kingdom.[11] Over the 2022/23 financial year 36 million passenger journeys were made on the system.[1]
Metrolink is owned by the public body Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and is part of the region's Bee Network. It is operated and maintained under contract by a Keolis/Amey consortium.[12][13]
The network consists of eight lines which radiate from Manchester city centre to termini at Altrincham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, East Didsbury, Eccles, Manchester Airport, Rochdale and The Trafford Centre. It runs on a mixture of on-street track shared with other traffic; reserved track sections segregated from other traffic, and converted former railway lines.[14]
Metrolink is operated by a fleet of 147 high-floor Bombardier M5000 light rail vehicles.[15][16] Each service runs to a 12-minute headway; stops with more than one service experience combined headways of 6 minutes or less.[17] At the busiest times some services operate as 'doubles', with two vehicles coupled together.[15]
A light rail system for Greater Manchester emerged from the failure of the 1970s Picc-Vic tunnel scheme to obtain central government funding.[18] A light-rail scheme was proposed in 1982 as the least expensive rail-based transport solution for Manchester city centre and the surrounding Greater Manchester metropolitan area.[19] Government approval was granted in 1988, and the network began operating services between Bury Interchange and Victoria on 6 April 1992. Metrolink became the United Kingdom's first modern street-running rail system; the 1885-built Blackpool tramway being the only first-generation tram system in the UK that had survived up to Metrolink's creation.[20]
Expansion of Metrolink has been a critical strategy of transport planners in Greater Manchester, who have overseen its development in successive projects, known as Phases 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 2CC and Trafford Park.[21][22] The latest extension, the Trafford Park Line from Pomona to the Trafford Centre, opened in March 2020.[23][24] The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has proposed numerous further expansions of the network, including the addition of tram-train technology to extend Metrolink services onto local heavy-rail lines.[25]