What better way to celebrate a birthday than with a big present? So Metrolink celebrates its 20th birthday today with the promise of twenty further new trams to arrive by 2014 and replace all the remaining original trams which are starting to show their age.
Many happy returns, Metrolink. You’ve had your share of growing pains in your teenage years, but now as you mature into your twenties, we hope that the best is yet to come.
Its 21st year will be a big year, with the South Manchester line opening to East Didsbury (and maybe to Droylsden and Rochdale if they get delayed) and then Ashton won’t be far off too.
Hopefully things will be smoother once the T68s are phased out (sad to see them go though) and Metrolink becomes a fully M5000 network
Might three or four used T68s be a perfect solution for the St Albans tram-train project?
It would require electrification at a different voltage: whether Hertfordshire would be happy with second-hand, supposedly unreliable trams is debateable. And if there are any plans for street-running in later stages, then maybe Midland Metro’s low-floor sister T-69s would be more suitable (along with lowering of platforms)?