Manchester Metrolink Bridge Over River Mersey - Sale, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 25.767 W 002° 17.136
30U E 547466 N 5920282
This concrete bridge over the River Mersey was opened in November 2014 to carry Metrolink trams across the River Mersey on a new line to Manchester Airport.
Waymark Code: WMNMBR
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/03/2015
Views: 1
"Metrolink (also known as Manchester Metrolink)[note 1] is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network consists of seven lines which radiate from Manchester city centre to termini at Altrincham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, Didsbury, Eccles, Manchester Airport and Rochdale. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and operated and maintained under contract by RATP Group.[9][10] Metrolink has 92 stops along 57 miles (92 km) of standard-gauge track[11] making it the largest light rail system in the United Kingdom.[12] In 2013/14, 29.2 million passenger journeys were made on the system.[4]
A light rail system for Greater Manchester emerged from the failure of the 1970s "Picc-Vic" scheme to obtain central government funding. Had it been implemented, the Picc-Vic scheme would have connected the Manchester-Bury & Manchester-Crewe railway lines via a city-centre tunnel between Victoria and Piccadilly railway stations. 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, and gathered political support in the 1980s in the absence of support for the previous Picc-Vic scheme. Government approval was granted in 1988 and the network began operating services between Bury Interchange and Victoria on 6 April 1992 after lengthy delays. The originally quoted 6-week conversion programme turned into a 6-month delay. Once working, Metrolink was the United Kingdom's first modern street-running rail system; the 1885-built Blackpool tramway being the only heritage tram system in the UK that had survived up to Metrolink's creation.[13]
The system has a mix of designated light railway (segregated from other traffic) and on-street tramway (shared with pedestrians and motor vehicles).
In 2000, officials and transport planners in Greater Manchester considered Metrolink to be a "phenomenal success".[26] The system was exceeding patronage targets and reducing traffic congestion on roads running parallel to its lines.[55] Consequently, when the Transport Act 2000 required passenger transport executives to produce local transport plans, GMPTE's top public transport priority was a third phase of Metrolink expansion, which would create four new lines along key transport corridors in Greater Manchester.
On 3 November 2014, the 14.5-mile (23.3 km) extension to Manchester Airport railway station opened, bringing the length of the system to 92.5 kilometres (57.5 mi), making it the longest tramway in the United Kingdom, and the longest light-railway.[120][not in citation given] It opened more than one year early,[121] and at a cost of £368 million."
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