Atomic Systems

Oldham has population of 103,544 (info from Wikipedia). It will be one of two towns over 100,000 people without a railway station (the other is West Bromwich).

If only our local council, Mersey Travel and the government had sorted out their differences a few years back, we too could of had a tram system, and we need it!

The chance was there to splash the cash from the money invested thanks to Capital of Culture and both teams looking to move stadia, heck we could of even attempted to re-open the underground rail-links to Walton, but no....Let's open ANOTHER shopping centre, as if we didn't have enough!! grrrrrrrr

Meanwhile as shops close from brankruptcy.........

The line is closing this autum ready for the conversions

andyw823 wrote:The line is closing this autum ready for the conversions

Hopefully

No hopefully about it - it's a shame it's still going ahead.

Dave

I live in Oldham, and all the line needed was some money spending to upgrade, as it was just forgotten about over the years as it was a branch line, but served the towns with a rail link to the country.
I hate what they are doing and money wasted on this metrolink could be used on many things such as upgrade of the line, better facilities and trackside felling of trees,which was the constant winge of why the line lost trains in winter due to the "Leaves on the line" syndrome down to 2 an hour, but hey look they are removing them now they are converting it.
I like those in Ashton dont want this but are being forced into it by councillors and GMPTE,and i hope this town dies now as they never listen.
As i have seen, public transport like the metro will only be used by the elderly ect on their free passes, adults like me wont be able to use it as it will be too expensive and like someone said, it will be quicker by bus as the travel times wont be any quicker now, than the 27 or 13 mins express by the train (pre 2008)
I hope that the metro is a white elephant in this town and people of Oldham/Shaw dont use it, lets shame GMPTE.

Oh did you know that Stagecoach uses money from its bus fares to keep it going so that tells me its a loss making idea, as i was told this by a driver at metrolink.

I agree that the line needed an upgrade but this could have been done for train use rather than Metro. I`ve no idea of the cost of the Metro conversion but a simple track renewal, tree removing, station upgrades and increased services would only cost a fraction of what it has cost for the Metro.

Based on my limited use of the Metro I am not so sure it will be the white elephant suggested. The stock should be quieter and cleaner, and the route wil allow you to get right into Manchester, and allow better access to Piccadily.

Where things have fallen down is the very poor interim service between its closure last year and its opening in 2012/2013. It took a lot of pressure to get the railway companies to add extra coaches for the line from Littleborough and Rochdale into Manchester via Castleton.

It is also to be hoped that the PTE will actaully provide real integrated public transport, especially if and when congestion charging rears its ugly head again.

Unfortunately it will be too late for me as I will have retired and free travel for retirees will have been significantly reduced as part of debt reduction at local/national level.

It is to be hoped that the populace will use the Metro, it was always very crowded on the Bury line.

Alec

Well i know that the fares wont be cheaper than getting the train from Oldham to ||Manchester than rail, and feel that the tram is lighter so wont be as robust when the winds blow, plus if you cast your mind back ,this line has been open over 100 years without upgrade and track renewal plus had to be shut, unlike the metro and rail replacement was put on so why install a complete waste of money on a system that will be closed alot due to things mentioned.
Ok the Bury and Altrincham lines are full, but so was the rail lines, plus trains had a full capacity of seating, metro trams have alot less and standing for your £6 return to Oldham wont attract many to use it as far comfortable by the 82/83.59,149,184 into Manchester and cheaper too.

Ok we have to move on but cant understand why it cant be for both the rail and metro, and yes trains had a subsidy but by the time metro has been implemented, it would have run the trains for about 10 years, i think currently stands at 900 million to build completly, but also you can ask lots of people from Bury,Altrincham,Oldham,Ashton if they wanted it and most will say no, they wanted better train services, and cheaper .

Sorry if this is slightly off-topic, but do Network Rail control the Metrolink signals between Deansgate jcn. and Altrincham interchange, as I have noticed those signal have the letters DJ above the numbers.

There is a connection between the NR lines and the Metro lines south of Navigation Road. It is most likely that NR would insist on controlling this.

dggar wrote:There is a connection between the NR lines and the Metro lines south of Navigation Road. It is most likely that NR would insist on controlling this.

probably because its the only place on the altrinham line that is mainline connected in case of maintence, the other connect being via the ELR but i dont think GMPTE would apprecitate class 66's or the sort running through the city centre would be fun to watch though

matt

blackthunder36 wrote:

dggar wrote:There is a connection between the NR lines and the Metro lines south of Navigation Road. It is most likely that NR would insist on controlling this.

probably because its the only place on the altrinham line that is mainline connected in case of maintence, the other connect being via the ELR but i dont think GMPTE would apprecitate class 66's or the sort running through the city centre would be fun to watch though

matt

There is another connection just outside of Man Vic, also i think there is still a connection at Dean Lane on the Oldham Loop line as track replacement for the tram is well underway with new track extending right upto Hollinwood. Caught this a few days back, ex BR hoppers in use on the Metro line in Failsworth!

andyw823 wrote:

blackthunder36 wrote:

dggar wrote:There is a connection between the NR lines and the Metro lines south of Navigation Road. It is most likely that NR would insist on controlling this.

probably because its the only place on the altrinham line that is mainline connected in case of maintence, the other connect being via the ELR but i dont think GMPTE would apprecitate class 66's or the sort running through the city centre would be fun to watch though

matt

There is another connection just outside of Man Vic, also i think there is still a connection at Dean Lane on the Oldham Loop line as track replacement for the tram is well underway with new track extending right upto Hollinwood. Caught this a few days back, ex BR hoppers in use on the Metro line in Failsworth!

what are the chance of that loco formerly belonging to the national coal board?

I bet the track in the city centre is built only for the axle load of the trams, and incidentally for the road traffic crossing it. A hundred-ton locomotive might have interesting effects on whatever is holding the road up.

There would also likely be problems with curve radius. At street running speeds, a tram can negotiate a much tighter curve than a big Co-Co. Even the tram is somewhat constrained though, as noted in some recent tramline building exercises here in Helsinki, where the line has had to be threaded carefully through the late 19th-century streets and between buildings (complete with gauntlet track in at least one place).

No, scratch that, I want to see a Pacer try to negotiate Manchester. It is after all just a bus on rail wheels!