Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) are to debate the pros and cons of extending the city’s tram network to the Trafford Centre.
Officials will meet on Friday (December 5) to discuss the feasibility of a new 5.5-kilometre line from Pomona along the Manchester Ship Canal to the city’s shopping hub.
The new route would follow Trafford Wharf Road and Warren Bruce Road before running through the Village area of Trafford Park, crossing Parkway Circle and Bridgewater Canal.
If all goes to plan, the line could be completed in 2019.
Destinations including Old Trafford, the Imperial War Museum North and EventCity would all be connected to the city’s tram network by the link.
Funding is already in place to begin planning and designing the route, including an order for 10 new trams from Bombardier valued at £2 million a vehicle. TfGM said delaying the order by just a year could see the unit price increase by around £1.5 million.
Councillor Andrew Fender, chairman of the TfGM Committee, said: “There is a great deal of work ahead of us before we can start to think of shovels hitting the ground, but I’m really pleased that it is building momentum and I look forward to more progress being made in the coming months and years.”
The Trafford Centre is NOT “the city’s shopping hub”..
Who would go from the city centre to the Trafford centre to shop? Most people go there from a good distance away & use direct bus services, or they drive. I can’t see them wanting to go via the centre, which is further, not to mention the fact it has plenty of shops anyway. Doesn’t seem much point to me in connecting the two. Better to concentrate on joining new areas to the system or taking some of the load off busy rail routes by removing local traffic. For example, run to Flixton instead. That would enable the closure of some of the local stations. Several of them are only served every 2 hours, because of capacity problems, so more frequent trams would be far better. Less stops on the railway would then give quicker journeys for passengers from Irlam & beyond – surely a win/win situation.
I thought the idea was an extension all the way to Port Salford?