Cardboard protesters

Cycle campaigners battling to get bikes allowed on Metrolink trams have launched a cardboard cut-out campaign.

Friends of the Earth organised the event to highlight how ordinary cycles could successfully be taken on to off-peak trams and encourage more people out of cars.

It follows Greater Manchester’s success in securing the Transport Innovation Fund bid which will expand Metrolink into town centres in Rochdale and Oldham, but could introduce a controversial congestion charge.

The cycle campaigners are asking Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and the councils to confirm that an expanded Metrolink system will allow bicycle users to take ordinary bikes on to trams.

At the moment, full-sized prams, pushchairs, wheelchairs and buggies are all allowed at any time, but bicycles are forbidden unless they can be folded.

Graeme Sherriff, Manchester Friends of the Earth transport campaign co-ordinator said: “Unless new trams and services have the facility to carry standard bicycles, existing train commuters and passengers, particularly those in Oldham and Rochdale, will actually lose the ability to travel with their bicycles and be forced back in the direction of the car for those routes where trams upgrade the existing train services.”