Every Manchester Metrolink T68 Tram + More

Filmed between 1992 and 2012 we see every* T68 and T68a Manchester Metrolink tram.
The first 5 minutes are a general look at T68's in action, including using their retractable steps at Mosley Street tram stop, after that there is the tram cavalcade and after that a couple of minutes riding tram 1012.
The tram stop with the flowers seen near the start of the film is St. Peter's Square.
The city centre tram stops with the innovative multi-height profiled platforms are also featured extensively.
A few M5000 trams are also seen. These were filmed between 2012 and 2019.
*The only trams I did not film myself are 1000 and 2002, for these we see images found online which have a Creative Commons license that allow re-use.
The prototype Metrolink T68 tram at the Manchester Museum of Transport
Image & license: Mike Peel www.mikepeel.net / Wikipedia encyclopædia. CC-BY-SA-4.0
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
T68a 2002
Image & license: Pimlico Badger CC BY-SA 2.0
www.flickr.com/photos/salford...

[@tob19]

Bring em back, they modern for their era and sound great tbh

[@Alphablue-tp4xc]

I want these back

[@laurenfisher3068]

Same I wish one of them where still operated today

[@AndrewG1989]

No wonder The City of Manchester really needed trams so that people living in Greater Manchester would commute on the trams to the City Centre and how much has changed over the years. The M5000 trams are very reliable. I always wanted to go to Manchester to ride on the trams.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

The real reason Manchester got trams is that the government refused to allow a short section of underground railway to be built to link up several suburban railway services via Manchester city centre (the Picc - Vic link). So a surface railway was planned instead.

[@NanoRail]

13:24 This door close sound is 100 % same in roblox bathwick and somerset game T68

[@buses7675]

Makes you wonder if you hadn't pushed that step in, would the tram have set off anyway then taken the step off by hitting the platform?

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

the trams could not travel with the steps out - I feel sure that there was an interlock to prevent this - what the film does not show is that there was a member of staff here whose duties included pushing the steps in, as required. The fact that someone was needed to do this demonstrates what a serious problem this had become.

[@buses7675]

@@CitytransportInfoplus Thank you for your reply - that may well be why the idea was abandoned on the newer trams and platforms all altered accordingly.

[@Mikeb1001]

Bring back the T68’s! I’m sure they were longer, they were certainly more comfortable specially on the fast sections and they had more seats

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

they were less reliable than the M5000's, yes its a shame that they have gone

[@lzh4950]

I recall the M5000s had quite a lot of NVH when going around bends when I was in Manchester several years ago

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

Every Motostoke TransLink T68 Tram + More

[@srfurley]

Have any of the original trams been preserved anywhere? Also, the same question for the previous Birmingham ones.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

A few have, see here: (Manchester) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnsaldoBreda_T-68 (Birmingham) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_Metro_rolling_stock

[@superspidey901.]

The old flashing lights with the tram symbol on it

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

I was looking for these, to film with my HD camcorder in 2019

[@daniellazarus2448]

In Germany we also have the m5000 but only in Cologne and Cologne it's called k5000

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

The M5000 trams are a specially adapted version of the K5000

[@spikey_104]

I was born in Manchester in 2002 and I remember the T68s very well. We used to ride from Stretford to Heaton Park during the school holidays. Eventually the new models started and gradually became more frequent and we even celebrated the fact we were on the T68 model, though we just called them "the grey trams". We even asked somebody working for metrolink, whilst waiting for the tram why these yellow ones were turning up and he told us that soon all the T68s would be out of service. It's actually kind of sad that they were completely replaced, they were very comfortable and they even sounded great whilst moving.

[@thebigtrainguy]

Why wasn't I born then!?😠😠

[@thebigtrainguy]

I don't remember riding then!

[@QuarioQuario54321]

I’m sure you’ve seen every tube train of certain types.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

its hard to know, especially when there are 80+ of some types of train some people have lists of all the trains and cross them off when they have seen each individual train. I have never done this.

[@soundseeker63]

For their day I think the T68s were nicer than the M5000s. They certainly sounded better and seemed to ride smoother at speed. That said, the M5000s are a valuable addition to an ever expanding network, which has proven to be succesfull. The Leeds and Bradford area REALLY need to get on board with a decent public transport system like this!

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

Leeds almost got a Supertram system - the financial plug was pulled at the last minute (by the government / civil servants) and only after the city council had spent £millions as part of the scheme. It was a terrible waste of money - but the fault lay in Whitehall, London, not in Leeds. In the 1980s Bradford was going to have a new trolleybus system but because of bus deregulation and a spoiler bus company wanting to run motor buses in competition with the electric buses the scheme floundered.

[@soundseeker63]

@@CitytransportInfoplus I've heard something to similar effect before. In any case, the end result is a public transport "system" in one of the country's most built-up regions that has seen little or no improvements for about 30 years and is arguably less advanced than it was in the 1950s! Travesty. Mind you, London always did keep all the cash for its own infrastructure projects while everyone else got whatever was left over. Not much has changed there! :-/

[@chorne1805]

Hello, could I please have the full clip of between 4:27 and 4:32? Thanks.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

Hello, how do you intend to use it? Normally footage is sold - not just given away.

[@HMPeterHearty7818]

where was the flashing tram signal at 0:14

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

the footpath across the tracks where trams travelling towards the city centre exit from the platforms at Piccadilly station

[@HMPeterHearty7818]

@@CitytransportInfoplus okay thanks

[@AndreA-ke2id]

The T68 was far better than the current tram. Looks more solid and with seating in a proper configuration. The current M5000's look more fragile and with a terrible seating layout. it's as if they threw the seats up in the air and bolted them down where they landed. Also the weak yellow colour scheme is awful. Stronger brighter colours would be much nicer. Wonder what the next generation will be like ?

[@FK-qh3mm]

How do you have this😂

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

I filmed it! I am old enough to have been there when these trams were introduced and over several visits to Manchester lucky enough to have filmed them all.

[@justinobrien3593]

The t68s was better made than the shit we got in service now! Why waste money on new trams in 2012 when there was nothing wrong with the 1st generation t68s no wonder tram and rail fares are so high as these t68s was only about 20 years old average tram/train life is 35 years plus!!!

[@macepower6886]

Ikr there in leave the condition but M5000 are good

[@skydiamond8705]

It’s mind-boggling how the UK handles it’s fleet of hard workers we like to use in America, our fleet to the best of its ability until they basically falling apart a lot of our stuff from the post and pre-war. Was built to last and it did its job, Budd was one of its leading companies making the R32 while st. Louis produced the R33 and the smee fleet what really put the nail in the coffin is that these trains were built at exactly the same time 1964 precisely and the R 32 got retired in 2018/9 the R33 got retired in 2003 because they were painted aluminum and because of the graffiti craze in the 80s. People don’t know how they clean trains when they clean trains they use acid to basically wash off the paint that basically destroys the metal and the coat.and over the two decades of graffiti, and then on top of the weathering of rain snow it basically killed the fleet these T68 were supposed to retire today not 10 years earlier they still had life and it’s like a ecosystem. Once these cars left stations were closed and just weren’t open again. Same thing with P865 in Los Angeles they look almost similar to these cars and where made in 1990s respectively

[@Timmyispro]

it just like roblox bathwick and somerset t68 tram :D

[@jezzaclarkson1028]

thats because it is.

[@Sqes9152]

lol this kid