a tram train along the airport rail line via Upper Brook Street (for the university).
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Finally I would like Manchester, Salford and Trafford to explore cheaper rail based solutions to connect the underserved areas of the inner city to the transport network (something along the lines of the Portland Streetcar).
I'm not sure to what extent a route along Upper Brook St. would really be serving the University. As it stands at the moment, the vast majority of foot traffic generated by UofM and MMU falls along Oxford Rd. I think this will slowly change, with recent developments connecting the two roads together more, but most academic departments and student facilities (unions, halls of residence, precinct centre, etc.) still face onto Oxford Rd.
I think that this, plus the laziness of students, plus the fact that buses remain significantly cheaper than trams, especially on such a high volume route, means that any light rail service serving the University will have to run along the Oxford/Wilmslow Rd. corridor.
I still think such a service would be valuable though, connecting into your point about connecting up more deprived inner-city areas. Whilst the likelihood is that Stockport will eventually join the Metrolink network via East Didsbury, I think some sort of Manchester City Centre-Stockport route that passed through Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme would be beneficial. The problem with the existing heavy rail line is that it does not stop in Longsight at all, and in my (admittedly limited) experience, the Ardwick stop is not in the best location for serving the local area.
That's why I think your tram-train idea is a good one Cher, as it could potentially serve more stops, and if it deviated from the heavy rail route to run closer to Upper Brook St, it might follow a more useful path through Longsight and Ardwick. I do believe it would be more useful if it were to carry on through to Stockport though, rather than branching off at Slade Lane to follow the airport route (although both options might be run at some point in the future, of course). Not because Burnage is necessarily any better served by heavy rail that the Heaton Chapel locality at the moment, but because I think better connecting residential neighbourhoods to Stockport (which remains a sizeable retail and business centre within the county) would be more valuable than connecting them to the airport. I am happy to accept that I might be completely wrong about this though :colgate:
Similarly, I think expansion of a rail-based project through Hulme, Moss Side and Whalley Range would be beneficial to those areas, which are all completely untouched by heavy rail. I'm not all that familiar with public transport in the north of the city, but I believe areas such as Cheetam Hill, Crumpsall and Collyhurst are served only by buses? Not to mention much of Salford.
I'm a big believer in the potential of transport networks to address the isolation that can sometimes develop in deprived communities. I'm very glad to see the expansion of Metrolink for this reason above all, and hope that future developments will only increase interconnectedness.
Whilst it might be the East Didsbury line that's going to be bringing home much of the bacon in the new expansions, I think it is probably the least important of the developments in terms of social impact. Not that that's an argument that it shouldn't be built. If running trams through affluent areas that already have decent public transport provision means they can also be run through less affluent areas, I'm very much in favour. It can only be a good thing to have the richest neighbourhoods connected up to the most deprived parts of the city.