Manchester Metrolink is a tram and light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along of standard-gauge route, making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Kingdom. Over the 2024/25 financial year, 46million passenger journeys were made on the system.

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 KeolisAmey.

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.

Metrolink is operated by a fleet of 147 high-floor Bombardier M5000 light rail vehicles, first introduced in 2009. Each of the nine routes runs five trams per hour in each direction; stops with more than one route running through it will have trams arriving more frequently. Services on busier lines operate as doubles, which are two trams coupled together.

A light rail system for Greater Manchester emerged from the failure of the 1970s Picc-Vic tunnel scheme to obtain central government funding.Ovenden, Mark. Metrolink: The First 25 Years (2017). St. Leonards: Rails Publishing. pp. 15–17. 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.Ovenden, Mark. Metrolink: The First 25 Years (2017). St. Leonards: Rails Publishing. pp. 19–22. Government approval was granted in 1988, and the network began operating services between Bury Interchange and 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.

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.

The latest extension, the Trafford Park Line from to The Trafford Centre, opened on 22 March 2020. 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.

History

Predecessors Manchester's first tram age began in 1877 with the first horse-drawn trams of Manchester Suburban Tramways Company. Electric traction was introduced in 1901, and the municipal Manchester Corporation Tramways expanded across the city. By 1930, Manchester's tram network had grown to , making it the third-largest tram system in the United Kingdom.

After World War II, electric trolleybuses and motor buses began to be favoured by local authorities as a cheaper transport alternative; by 1949, the last Manchester tram line was closed. Trolleybuses were withdrawn from service in 1966.

Origins

Greater Manchester's railway network historically suffered from poor north–south connections because Manchester's main railway stations, Piccadilly and Victoria, were built in the 1840s on peripheral locations outside Manchester city centre. The central commercial district had no rail links and, over the years, several unsuccessful schemes were proposed to connect Manchester's rail termini.

In the 1960s, transport design studies were undertaken to address the problems of increasing traffic congestion. Many urban public transport schemes were evaluated for Manchester, including several types of monorail systems and metro-style systems.

While the monorail schemes were all abandoned, a scheme to create a tunnel link gained momentum. The SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive — the body formed in 1969 to improve public transport for Manchester and its surrounding municipalities — promoted the Picc-Vic tunnel project. The project was a proposal to link Piccadilly and Victoria stations, via a tunnel under the city centre, and enable train services to run across the Manchester conurbation. Greater Manchester County Council (GMC) inherited the project and presented it to the United Kingdom Government in 1974, but the council failed to secure the necessary funding and the project was abandoned in 1977. (exhibition catalogue) The Centreline shuttle bus service provided inter-station links for many years.

The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE), the successor to SELNEC, continued to examine possible rail link solutions. Light rail emerged in the early 1980s as a cost-effective option that could make use of existing railway lines and run through the city centre at street level, eliminating the need for costly tunnelling works. A Rail Study Group, composed of officials from British Rail, GMC and GMPTE formally endorsed the Project Light Rail scheme in 1984. Initial abstract proposals, based on light rail systems in North America and continental Europe, illustrated a draft network consisting of three lines: Altrincham–/ Bury–/ –.

To promote the scheme, GMPTE held a public proof of concept demonstration in March 1987, using a Docklands Light Railway P86 train on a freight-only line adjacent to Debdale Park, in east Manchester. The Project Light Rail proposals were presented to the UK Government for taxpayer funding; following route revisions in 1984 and 1987, Project Light Rail was approved. Because of the central government's constraints on financial support for innovative transport projects, funding was granted by HM Treasury with the strict condition that the system be constructed in phases. Additional taxpayer funding came from the European Regional Development Fund and bank lending.

Construction

Phase 1

Parliamentary authority to proceed with Phase 1 construction was obtained with two Acts of Parliament: the Greater Manchester (Light Rapid Transit System) Act 1988 and Greater Manchester (Light Rapid Transit System) (No. 2) Act 1988.

The first phase of Metrolink involved the conversion of two suburban heavy rail lines to light rail operation: The Bury Line in the north; conversion started in July 1991 The MSJ&AR line in the south; conversion started December 1991

Construction of a street-level tramway through the city centre was also required to connect the two. Tracks were laid down along a route from Victoria station, via Market Street and St Peter's Square to the G-Mex, with a branch from Piccadilly Gardens to Piccadilly station. This route is now known as the First City Crossing (1CC) and it was built with network expansion in mind.

A fleet of 26 AnsaldoBreda T-68 light rail vehicles was procured to operate the network. Construction was carried out by the GMA Group (a consortium of AMEC, GM Buses, John Mowlem & Company and GEC), costing £145million (equivalent to £million in ).

Metrolink was initially scheduled to open in September 1991, but services did not begin until 1992, when the Bury Line reopened from Victoria station to Bury Interchange on 6 April. The first street-level trams began running on 27 April between Victoria and G-Mex (renamed in 2010), and the Altrincham Line reopened on 15 June from G-Mex to Altrincham Interchange. The branch to Piccadilly station opened on 20 July. Metrolink was opened officially by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 July 1992.

Phase 2

In Phase 2, the Metrolink network was extended westwards to Eccles along the new Eccles Line, as part of the 1990s urban regeneration of Salford Quays, increasing the total Metrolink route length to . The extension cost £160million (equivalent to £million in ) and was funded by the GMPTA, the ERDF and private developers. It was constructed 1997–99 by Altram (a consortium of Serco, Ansaldo and John Laing) and six new AnsaldoBreda T-68A trams were bought to operate services on the line, but were also used in other locations across the network. The line was inaugurated by prime minister Tony Blair on 6 December 1999 as far as Broadway tram stop, as the street running section to Eccles Interchange was completed. The Broadway–Eccles section was opened on 21 July 2000, and the complete line was officially opened by Princess Anne on 9 January 2001.

Phase 3

The Phase 3 extension project, nicknamed the "Big Bang", was promoted by GMPTE and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) in the early 2000s. The project, costing £489million (£million in ), would create four new lines: Oldham and Rochdale Line East Manchester Line South Manchester Line Airport Line.

Phase 3 was put in doubt when central government funding was withdrawn, due to increasing costs but, after negotiations with the Department for Transport, Phase 3 was split into two parts, 3a and 3b, to secure investment.

The new spur off the Eccles Line to was funded separately by the Northwest Regional Development Agency. As part of Phase 3, the original blue T-68 trams were withdrawn and replaced with a new fleet of Bombardier M5000 trams, which entered service in December 2009.

Beginning in October 2009 with the closure of the Oldham Loop heavy rail line, Phase 3a involved converting this line to light rail operation, including rebuilding all stations on the route and adding several new stops, reopening a disused section of the former Cheshire Lines Committee railway to use as the first part of the South Manchester Line (up to ), and building a new East Manchester Line as far as . When completed in 2013, Phase 3a increased Metrolink's total network length to .

Phase 3b involved the construction of a new Airport Line to Manchester Airport, and extending three of the Phase 3a lines: the East Manchester Line to Ashton-under-Lyne the South Manchester Line to and adding street-running routes through Oldham and Rochdale town centres to the Oldham and Rochdale Line.

Construction work began in March 2011 and Phase 3b was completed in November 2014, with the Airport Line's opening.

Phase 3b was delayed after a failed bid to raise funding through the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund and a proposed traffic congestion charge in 2008. GMPTE and AGMA instead funded Phase 3b through a combination of council tax, government grants, Metrolink fares and contributions from the Manchester Airports Group and other bodies.

Second City Crossing

With increased tram traffic brought about by the expansion of the Metrolink network, it became necessary to build a new route across Manchester city centre to alleviate congestion and improve capacity.

Known as the Second City Crossing (or 2CC), the project involved laying of tram tracks from St Peter's Square tram stop, via Princess Street, Albert Square, Cross Street and Corporation Street, to rejoin the original Metrolink line just before Victoria station. The project cost £165million in 2017. One new tram stop was built at . The project also involved reordering St Peter's Square and resiting the Cenotaph to accommodate an enlarged tram interchange and junction. The realigned tracks were to run over the site of the former St Peter's Church (demolished 1907).

To protect the remaining underground burial vaults of the church, concrete slabs were put in place below street level before the tram tracks were laid. The stone cross marking the location of the former church was restored and re-instated close to its original location, in between the tracks.

Construction began in 2014 and the 2CC route opened fully in February 2017.

Trafford Park