All change for Manchester Victoria Metrolink stop

The major, multi-million pound refurbishment of Manchester Victoria will see the station’s Metrolink stop dramatically improved.

In parallel with the station’s transformation, the Metrolink stop will be completely redesigned to provide new platforms to increase capacity and allow more trams through Victoria in light of the additional services coming on to the network in future.

The bulk of this work will be done from January to September next year and, in the interests of safety and logistics, will require trams to pass through Victoria in both directions on a single line of track.

As a result, TfGM is proposing to temporarily close the Victoria stop to passengers in order to maximise the number of services that can run through it while the improvements are delivered.

Bury services call at Victoria every six minutes in each direction, and services between Rochdale and St Werburgh’s Road call every 12 minutes in each direction: 30 trams an hour overall, which cannot be sustained on a single line of track.

In order to maintain as close to normal services as possible during the single line running, Transport for Greater Manchester is asking committee members to endorse the following measures for the duration of the work:

• Maintain the existing Bury to Altrincham service through the city centre and increase capacity by running double trams on each service
• Provide a shuttle tram service between Bury and Abraham Moss, running every 12 minutes, to cater for the high number of local line journeys on the Bury line – approximately a third of journeys
• Provide a shuttle bus service between Abraham Moss, Queens Road, Manchester Victoria, Shudehill and Piccadilly, for passengers heading to or from Piccadilly and to supplement the Bury to Altrincham service through city centre
• Divert the Bury to Droylsden service to run Droylsden to Eccles, via Piccadilly, every 12 minutes
• Maintain the 12-minute Rochdale to East Didsbury service through Victoria

Peter Cushing, TfGM’s Metrolink Director, said: “The transformation of Victoria station is a fantastic project and Metrolink passengers are going to benefit from it greatly.

“We’ve arranged for the work to the Metrolink stop and tracks through Victoria to be done quickly and efficiently in parallel with the station’s overall upgrade to minimise the long term disruption and to ensure passengers can benefit from it as soon as possible.

“With that comes the need to run trams on a single line of track through Victoria, which affects how many trams we can physically run through it.

“We’ve looked at the implications of that very closely and the proposals we’re putting forward are, on balance, the most effective, the safest and the least disruptive and also mirror the journey demands we’ve monitored on the network.

“By closing the stop to passengers, we can run more services through Victoria on the single line but it’s also safer, given the nature of the work being done.”

During the work, passengers who want to get trams to or from rail services or Manchester Arena events at Victoria would be directed to use the nearby Shudehill stop.

Additional signage and ticket vending facilities would be provided at Shudehill, and staff would be on hand at the stop during the busiest times. Additional measures would also be put in place to cater for demand during arena events.

The Metrolink stop works and associated enhancements are being funded by the Greater Manchester Transport Fund and European Regional Development Fund.

The redevelopment of Victoria station is being funded by Network Rail, Manchester City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester.​