Advertisement
More room for tram passengers to stand
Reporter: by ALAN SALTER
Date online: 29 October 2009
Fewer seats to ‘increase comfort’ in rush hour
Now for the good news . . . there will be 30 fewer seats on Metrolink’s new trams which will carry Oldham passengers within two years.
It is good news because although the 200 capacity is roughly the same as the old trams running on the network at the moment, only 52 passengers will find a seat in the rush hour, making life a lot more unpleasant for the 150 others who will be standing.
The first of the 40 £2m trams on order was shipped from its makers, Bombardier, in Vienna in July and others have been arriving regularly since.
Members of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport were given unique access to the new trams at Metrolink’s Queens Road depot, where they are being tested — and the Chronicle went along.
As our pictures show, the new trams are light and airy inside because of the fewer seats, full-length glass double doors, and the yellow and silver colour scheme.
The new look was developed by Manchester-based design agency Hemisphere which chose yellow because of its “traditional association with confidence and optimism which echoes Greater Manchester’s attitude and values”.
The model, which already operates in several European cities, including Cologne, Bonn, Rotterdam and Stockholm, will run on the existing system as well on the new lines to MediaCityUK (open in summer 2010), Central Park and South Manchester (spring 2011), Oldham Mumps (autumn 2011), and Rochdale and Droyslden (spring 2012).
Meanwhile, builders have finished clearing the site for a new Metrolink tram depot in Old Trafford which will have room for 40 trams and will cover more than 67,000 square metres — around the size of 10 football pitches.
The final building on the site — a former bakery and packaging company which had been derelict for more than a decade — has now been demolished. The site of the new Metrolink depot is sandwiched between the tram line to Altrincham, Ayres Road and the new line to Chorlton in South Manchester.
The original depot in North Manchester will also be expanded to house some of the new trams.
More than twice as many trams will run across Manchester city centre when the new lines open with most city centre stops will have trams calling at them at least every three minutes during the daytime in both directions.
l Got an opinion or more information on this story? E-mail news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk
Comments
Isn't this just what the critics of the metrolink have been saying only worse!
Now Oldhamers will have to pay twice as much for a journey which takes more than twice as long, standing up! This is not progress, it's a backwards step.
And what's it all for? Well there's a couple of carriages tranferred to the line where a certain councillor lives, who won't be using the damn thing!
wow and we have to wait 2+yrs wonderful, its a good job I have a congestion machine -- sorry thats liberal admin
Its a shame that people weren't more vehement about opposing this absolutely terrible idea to install trams and removing the train and putting in what already seems to be a poor service. More standing room that would be fine on a 10-15-20 minute journey but the trams are supposed to take around 45! Great! Its gets worse and worse
The lunacy of this whole scheme knows no bounds!! Just how much is it going to cost Oldham council tax payers Mr Sykes? What an utterly incompetent quango GMPTE is and what a disgusting abandonment of it's duty to represent whats best for Oldham and it's people this shambles is.
Just think, when this waste of money rumbles down Union St, those still left standing but exhausted can replenish their energy with a kebab or takeaway from one of the 20 or so that infest the length of the street!!
Is it true that when the tramline comes down Union Street, in order to get it back on to the old line at the bridge, it will have to start rising at about Prince Street (oppposite the old Oldham Hotel) and that the proposed station next to B&Q will actually be about 30ft high? Perhaps Oldham Council and GMPTE will tell us some time. If it isn't true how is the line going to get back to the right level to go on to Rochdale?
nowtynowt! what they fail to tell you is that the cost of the oldham town centre section will be almost as much as the whole conversion of the existing line.
somehow engineers may years ago managed to realise that the easiest route through oldham was where the line now stands. and thats a fair gradient itself. somehow i dont trust the latest bunch of rail engineers much!
NOWTYNOWT.....the line running down Union St will be a dead end. Trains running to Mumps will carry on along the line to Rochdale. Why a branch off the line at Werneth that will go up Middleton Road at Westwood. Any answers Mr Uddin? Why not simply run a branch off at Mumps? That whole area could then be developed as a park/ride/bus node with development of the wasted space at B&Q. Perfect site for a leisure complex that can be accessed from all areas of town very easily.
why not take all the seats out & jam even more livestock, sorry, "passengers" on? I'll stick to my car!
We finally get a new transport system and people do nothing but complain. Yet more proof that Oldhamers don't deserve progress.
Isn't this yellow the most poncey inappropriate colour. And reading about 'made in Vienna' equally gets up one's nose. Time was when the A62 and A57 corridors out of Manchester had a dozen premises that could have made these trams.
Fewer seats to ‘increase comfort’ in rush hour...
Is it me or is it something they're putting in the food?
Guinness Book of Records for strap-hanging anyone? Does second-class standing now beat first class sitting, in our brave, dumbed down, nu-lab world?
Bear this fiasco in mind at the next Local Government elections ....... Knowles should be among the first to get booted out!
I already said this would happen on a post a few weeks ago..haha..joke..2x2 seating config..when will backward UK get like Sydney..get trains..not trams..that are double decked and 4-8 carriages long in a 3x2 seating config..air conditioned as well.Those old trains where hotter than hell even in winter..especially when full..which was always in the peak times. Prob be only 2 carriages long as well I guess ??
garcon please explain where you see progress?
Why is this progress, why is this something to be shouted about and WHY WHY WHY should we be grateful?
Backwards is the way this is going, the tram is going to be a white elephant
longer journey times
increased fare
standing room only
at least with the trains your journey time is short lived to be packed in like sardines.
So, so far we have fewer seats, a 40 minute stand up journey into Manchester and no mention of the frequency?
Well, this is just the sort of thing to be positive about eh? They may as well have just kept everybody in the dark - I mean, who wants to stand for 40 minutes before and after work, in what will be potentially a packed metal box on rails?
In my book, at this stage, it doesn't seem to be of much more benefit to the train!
Have Your Say
and they call this progress? we're going backwards not forwards!! the frequency of these trams has not been mentioned yet? will we be getting a more regular service compared with the trains?
will they be allowing bicycles on when it opens? you currently cannot take them on the existing trams.
By fedupoldhamer @ 29/10/2009 11:55:08