Manchester Metrolink Light Rail System, United Kingdom
System:
Ownership
Serco Metrolink
Date opened
April 1992
Route length
37 km / 23 m
Gauge
1435 mm
Lines
2
Stations
36
Passengers carried per year
12 million
Electrification:
Voltage
750V
Current
DC overhead
Rolling stock:
Vehicle total (1998)
26
6 further units delivered late 1999 for use on Salford Quays/Eccles extension Builder
Special characteristics:
Based heavily on former heavy rail alignments
Signalling a mix of heavy rail operation and automatic operation on-street
Trams supplied in ´kit´ for assembly on-site
Metrolink 2000 to take five million car journeys off city roads
Coincides with resignalling and modernisation of heavy rail network
Extensions Planned:
2000-2010
38.5 km / 24 m
Salford Quays-Eccles and Dumplington, Victoria-Rochdale via Oldham, Piccadilly-Ashton-under-Lyne
Old Trafford-East Didsbury, Wythenshawe and Manchester Airport
Airport Line:
First ´new generation´ light rail development in UK
