Manchester Victoria to Oxford Road, First Day of the Orsdall Chord 10/12/2017

The first passenger trains to use Manchester's new Ordsall Chord. First up we have a quick look around Victoria station, a rather impressive looking station to my eyes at least and definitely my favourite Manchester terminus. A quick glimpse at the old L&Y railway map, along with its' modern successor, then we see the Northern Random Unit Generator giving us 150142 & 158909 arriving Platform 3 at Victoria with 2M34 to Oxford Road via the Chord.
I've tried to get footage from the train itself, but with no drop light to film out of, the footage is spoiled at times by the reflections off the glass. Also, the conductor asked for my ticket just as we were going across the Irwell Street bridge, so I had to catch that on the return trip. Anyway, it's great to see it open. Also, kudos to Northern /Arriva for the very nice (in my opinion) internal refurb on the 150. I really liked it.

[@croesoycymru]

Very enjoyable, thank you for posting. Also provides a great appreciation of Manchester city centre's rich heritage in building and architecture.

[@30453trains]

Thanks for the kind comments

[@geoffedwards-tb4kp]

Should utilise, modernise, and enlarge all GMP rail. Duel purpose like it's integration from and into the metro was; is and will continue he until comprehensive cover for most major towns borough and cities in the while Metropolitan area. Why not inter grate a Merseyside /Liverpool metro system using same technique and have liverpool_mancs tram?

[@30453trains]

geoff edwards easier said than done, I’m afraid. The trouble with Manchester is, unlike Merseyside, there’s very few self-contained purely ‘local’ rail routes left to be incorporated into Metrolink Almost everything that remains as conventional rail has to interwork with long distance services, so can’t just be converted to metro/light rail. Even if inter-operability between Metrolink and heavy rail were possible, there’s not too many places it can work- take the Bolton line for example: you can’t run a 10-15 minute frequency all shacks metro service on that line because of all the long distance services that use it that would be tripped up by it. Same with the routes to Warrington. The only two extant railway lines that such a move might be feasible is the Atherton line and the Rose Hill line. But in both cases, you can quickly see why they’re proper rail routes when you take a closer look. In the case of the Atherton line, where do you put the Southport trains? As already stated there’s no room via Bolton and you’d be relying on Merseyrail extending through to Wigan to maintain through services on the Kirkby line (and the local GM authorities being ok with a Merseyside concession operating on their patch- good luck with that!) Metrolink expansion should definitely happen- but I would say there’s very little reason for it to take any more of Manchester’s extant Rail network.

[@geoffedwards-tb4kp]

@@30453trains OK.

[@spiritofcantaolisboa-p8871]

First of all great video footage but...with 3 of all the stations provided by either ticket checks or gates for sure,at the exact moment someone is enjoying the core part of the journey and even video/photo capturing the train manager is asking for tickets. That is absolutely awful! Thanks for sharing your second and successful attempt of your memorable experience that I am about to have though, although the chord is just on my door step. Cheers.

[@30453trains]

Spirit of Cantao Lisboa-P 88 these things happen unfortunately. Not the end of the world.

[@simonkirkbright5197]

Pity about the ticket inspector, but well done for getting the first video up

[@30453trains]

Simon Kirkbright cheers for that, oh well...