High Floor Pre-Metro style LRT which my home city of Edmonton as well as Manchester has is almost good enough to rival the best driverless metro systems around the world however the downtown metro project proposed way back then should still go ahead. These type of central downtown artery tunnels are expensive however they are very long term investments that pay dividends for future generations not having to pay for them later on... Just ask Calgary what the cost of deferring tunnels downtown leads to... ;-)

1:11 Who knew stations could be so dangerous?

I've lived in Manchester my whole life and I love the metrolink, it's so useful for getting around! The lack of automatically opening doors has always seemed odd to me though, glad I'm not the only one haha Love the video, great work <3!

Very cool review! Those galvanised steel industrial fences and tiny uninspiring shelters are a plague, sadly...

Alright mate I got recommended this video after watching a few of Geoff Marshall’s and jago hazards videos. I can see your little channel growing into a mainstay of the British travel KZbinr niche, your videos are high quality , easy to watch and mix educational/ informative content nicely (which is often hard to do without sounding too boring). I’ll be keeping a close eye on this channel and have high hopes for your future, best of luck 💪 😊

Just for clarification, at the time of filming and editing this video, ashley down was the newest station in Britain. But by the most insane timing ever, on the same day this video was uploaded, Ashington and Seaton Deleval in Newcastle opened taking the new spot. Btw I will not cover them as I live about 6 hours away, but would love to be at every new station opening in the future! (probably talking about max a year away).

Great video format

Uhh you uploaded this on the same day as Ashington and Seaton Deleval opened so not the newest anymore

Requesting a warning sign compilation for every new station, lol

Nice video 👍

Nice work finding that "You can't have this until at least 1975" comment. There is a lot of that going on around the UK. Crossrail was proposed about 100 years before it was built. Thamslink 2000 didn't get done until about 2020. A dodgy company tried to get Crossrail replaced by an Oxford Street Monorail, at one point. There have been over twenty attempts to get the Bakerloo Line extended. So even in London (where allegedly the population is "high enough") people jump in the way of these sorts of projects and attempt to block other people from having good things. Things do change in cities. Sometimes something is needed, but changes mean it is no longer needed. However, that is really rare.What seem to happen with transport projects in cities is that people who dislike public transport first try to block them from happening. Then, when people ask again, the people who dislike public transport always argue that the thing isn't necessary and that studies need to be made. Studies burn up the money of local councils. (Doing lots of studies, instead of a few studies, increases the cost of doing things and the time needed to implement improvements.) Then, after something finally gets approved, anti-transport people argue against the design (after money has been spent on planning) and try to reduce the investment needed to build the project. (This often does not save money as the plans need to be redone if you change things.) Then the thing gets built and is much more successful than predicted. Then it needs to be upgraded to cope with more passengers. And that ends up costing more than doing things the right way in the first place. This was a good video. I hope you get noticed by people who make public transport infrastructure and get invited to meet some people who build things like this one day. We need trams to return to a lot more UK cities. But we also need to be honest and call them "trams". Trams have a lower capacity than "metros", but a better capacity than buses. Transport planners should always be looking at the demand first, then taking future proofing into account, and then choosing what type of vehicles to use. People like you (who like public transport and who want to explain it to people who like watching videos) need to figure out what sort of things (like sports stadiums, exhibition centres or concert venues) are in a transport corridor, so you can make a good guess on when buses, trams, metro systems or heavy rail would be the best long term solution. Keep an eye on the South West Metro. They are going to be operating tram-trains, that work normally on railway lines, but which can go through streets on tram lines too. That's an interesting choice by the Welsh government. You might want to take a visit when it is up and running.

We really need to get over this thing of UK rail projects being scuppered because the population is smaller than London. We build fat motorways all over the UK, and a motorway bridge over a big river is expensive wherever it is built. But whenever investment needs to be made in trains, some MPs who don't live in that area, start arguing that the investment will not be paid back in increased passenger revenue. Public transport is not just about how many people live somewhere or work somewhere. It is also about how many people from outside the area descend on an area because something like a football match is happening. Things like football matches happen all over the UK. And that leads to large numbers of visitors trying to travel from one place in the UK to another place in the UK and they all need to arrive at the venue before the event they are attending starts. So sporting events and concerts cause massive surges in demand on public transport. And the public transport system needs to be able to cope with surges proportional to the capacity of entertainment venues. Now Metrolink (which is not a "metro" - it's a tram system cosplaying as a metro) can not easily increase the frequency of trams through the city centre because pedestrians do actually need to be able to cross roads that trans run through. So the success of the system means there is a conflict that is creating a maximum capacity for the city. If a tunnel was put through the central section and the trams ran on streets in the outer sections that had less pedestrians, it would make tram travel through Central Manchester a lot faster and safer and give the streets back to pedestrians and bikes. Space would also be filled up for something like a street market to be run (if that was desirable).

I think Manchester should have at least one subway line

Look at Antwerp- a small city but with a world class underground tram system.

Manchester should Built a light rail Tunnel in the City Centre Here in germany Many Cities have them Duisburg Düsseldorf essen mühlheim Frankfurt Köln Dortmund And Many more

Solid videos, consider spending a bit of time learning how to make a proper nice thumbnail and I reckon you'll do great with these 👍 something like RMtransit's thumbnails, with your own style that will be nice and recognisable

The Arndale Shopping Centre was future proofed for the Pic Vic. A station box was excavated beneath the centre during construction and remains accessible.

0:45 Subways, even autmated ones, will have higher running costs then trams.

Great video mate keep them coming!

The clock was going backwards at 0:32

After having used the high speed line from London to Ashford, why route the service to Ramsgate via Folkestone, Dover and Deal rather than use the quicker route via Canterbury West? I assume this train is not really intended for through passengers from London to Ramsgate. You should point out that you can arrive at Ramsgate 6 minutes earlier by changing at Ashford onto the service from Charing Cross which continues to Ramsagte via Canterbury West or you can take a through Javelin train to Ramsgate via Canturbuty West which departs from St Pancras 36 minutes later and arrives at Ramsgate only 7 minutes later than this slower train. Also, nobody in the UK uses KPH. We use MPH.

I'm not much of a railfan, more of an aviation enthusiast. But nonetheless, this was a good watch!

im really impressed at the quality of this video

In Germany, there are pre-metros like in Manchester which have sections on their own site, underground sections and sections shared with road traffic (like a standard tramway)

Thanks for watching, please consider subscribing :) Clarification on the "fastest train" title: 0:10

A little tip with the doors. You can press it before it stops then it'll open when it does. Not quite automatic, but it speeds things up a little.

Another thing is that a subway system would not only cost billions but also means lots of traffic issues with roads being constantly dug up. It would be a nightmare.

The Metrolink is by far the greatest thing to happen to Manchester in the last 100 years, apart from the success of the 2 Manchester football teams. Its brilliant and getting further expansion to Stockport, Middleton, Bolton and Wigan will enhance it even more.

I saw my picture which made me smile :)) I took the pic of the TfW trains at Cardiff Ctrl used on Wikipedia today :))

Lots of tunnels under Manchester, in 1971 I was an apprentice telephone engineer, GPO, now British telecom, I remember once going down a man hole in city centre, (with the engineer I was shadowing) not far from river Irwell, at the bottom of the manhole were some heavy timbers with iron rings set in them, lifted two timbers the went down iron spiral stairs , came down a few feet onto a proper cobbled street, it was bricked up at the sides and a long brick arch above, don’t remember really exploring this, I was told that many years ago this would have run down to the edge of the river Irwell and as the city developed and the river embankments were built up to today’s level, some of these old , narrow streets were brick over rather than filled in. You can see old “barred openings “ halfway up the embankments nowadays

I like to see a video on the TFW

It'd be interesting if they built a tram tunnel like what many tram systems in mainland Europe (especially German but also some Austrian & Swiss "Stadtbahnen") have, but I doubt they'll get the money to do that

Subways cost money. This factor will become more important to you once you are old enough to pay taxes.

as someone who lives in Manchester I agree with you. from what I heard the trams were getting extended to Bolton but that got cancelled for reasons I do not know. the public transport in Manchester are very poor especially northern on the Walkden line and the bee network. buses that are in the bee network sector are really poor buses don't come on time we have to wait every 20 mins for a bus or even up to half hour or even up to an hour if delayed I have a friend who works for the bee network hand he said to me I think the bee network in general is diabolical. great video though.

cars always have to give way to the trams and they come every 6 mins outside the city centre which is perfectly fine, also if it was a subway i wouldnt be able to bump it

Victoria and Piccadilly stations are not far apart, when in Manchester it’s a 1( minute walk. There is also a free bus service from these stations.

A subway? It’s all about money unfortunately

I think the Picc-Vic will eventually be built to solve some of the issues, it'll just be a part of the Metrolink and not a whole separate system however

Interior could be improved

The video was fine. It's just that the Metro has been poorly implemented. For a start needing a platform to get onto the vehicle is silly; it makes each station a major investment, the building blocks the free passage of people, for example Market Street. Practically every other tram network (that I know about) uses street level entrance. Imagine, you fly into Manchester Airport and think "I'll take the Metro, bound to be fast" and then sit as the trams trundle along at a slow speed, stopping every 200 metres or so. I have a 15 minute walk to a station. plus almost 50 minute journey. It's quicker and cheaper to take the 43 bus from the Airport to Piccadilly, faster is the train. There is a small town and rail station near the airport - Heald Green- putting the Tram Line near the rail station would have improved the transport for the area. A few years ago I had to transfer from Manchester Piccadilly to Victoria, descending into the undercroft for a linking tram was miserable. After that I walked - much quicker. Rant over!

It wont be good idea for a subway since it goes to popular areas where it stops if you add those stops there it will cause traffic on cars when its building.

Honestly for how much a metro system costs it’s not worth it. It takes 30 about minutes to get from Ashton under lyne to the city centre. That money would be far better spent on a circular line connecting the outer towns on the system and increased capacity at peak hours imo

There are no traffic flows large enough in the Manchester metropolitan area that could support the enormous cost of a tunnelled metro system. What could work is short underpasses at key places to speed up tram services rather than flat junctions everywhere.

You could never have automated trams on, for instance, the branch that goes to Media City and Eccles. Automation is not possible, even if the city centre section were underground.

an underground Pic-Vic link in Manchester would be prone to flooding yet still cost several Trillion quid; - it is possible to navigate between the two stations via rail only but the walk is quicker... the Metrolink connects the two but also is slower than walking as it stops everywhere...

Excellent video! Thank you

Nice video. It occurs to me that Manchester would be an ideal place for an S-Bahn. The classic S-bahn system is built out of existing lines that spread out in different directions from the city, and Greater Manchester has plenty of those, that all funnel together into a "Stammstrecke" - that is a tunnel under the city centre with a very high frequency of trains. As expensive as this is, it's mostly about making use out of existing infrastructure - i.e. all the routes that can't be used as much as they could because it's too congested in the city centre, rather than building a whole new metro system as larger cities would do. Here in Stuttgart, which I guess is about half the size of Manchester, the S-Bahn has 6 lines each running every 15 minutes with 140 or 200m long trains - that's a train every 2.5 minutes in the city centre underground stations. And this is in addition to the Stadtbahn - the Stadtbahn being roughly the same as the Metrolink (yellow too) as a mixture of tram and light railway (although the Stadtbahn too mostly disappears underground in the city centre). German cities invested in these systems in the 70s and 80s and reap the rewards today and for decades to come - it's hard to imagine anything different. You can imagine how something similar would be a quantum leap for Manchester.

Thanks for the really interesting video. I wrote about light rail/trams for my dissertation many years ago. I had suggested that trams were better than a subway, due to there being no need for tunnels and underground stations, and the perceived safety of tram stops because they were in the open. Nowadays, I support the idea of turning the Metrolink into a subway/metro. I accept that safety at tram stops will have changed due to changes in the levels of crime, so subway stations with CCTV and security guards patrolling the stations should improve passenger safety. Furthermore, they should help to improve capacity. One final thought: I saw in a book (published over 40 years) that included a plan to build two railway lines, one linking Victoria Station to Central Station and a line linking Piccadilly to the north-west of the city. Albert Square would have been the site of the interchange. What a pity these schemes never went ahead (Ditto with the Picc-Vic).