Metrolink plans not good news for Rochdale

Town Centre Metrolink stop

Metrolink service plans for the new Second City Crossing (2CC) which opens next year are not good news for Rochdale.

Passengers will benefit from more trams running right into the heart of Manchester city centre, but Rochdale passengers still won't have a direct link to Piccadilly station.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/129/letters-to-the-editor/106254/letter-metrolink-disappointment

A meeting of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee heard how the new 2CC route - due to open early next year - will give Metrolink greater operational flexibility and improved service reliability whilst also providing for the long-awaited extension of Manchester Airport services beyond Cornbrook to Deansgate-Castlefield initially and then Victoria.

It was decided that Rochdale and Oldham services to and from East Didsbury will run along the new line through the city, serving Victoria, Exchange Square and St Peter's Square.

All major construction work on 2CC will soon be finished in time for the busy festive period and a through testing and commissioning process will follow before the new line fully opens in early next year.

2CC is part of the transformational Grow project which is seeing more than £1billion invested into the city centre infrastructure improvements by 2017, including bus priority measures, six new and better cycle routes into the city centre and major rail improvements.