Manchester's new airport tram line will be ready ahead of schedule

As of November, Manchester’s extensive tram network will have a brand new line. It’ll stretch south from St Werburgh’s Road to Manchester Arport, via the Sale Water Park and the district of Wythenshawe.   

Incredibly, the project’s also a month ahead of schedule, which in transport circles is, as Councillor Andrew Fender, chair of the Transport for Greater Mancheser Committee, put it, a “truly amazing achievement “.   

The line should open at the beginning of November, and trains will start completing test runs from next Monday.   

Here’s how the new line will look (though the names of the 14 new stops could still be changed):

  And here’s how it fits into the existing network:  

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The 14.5km extra leg will bring the total length of the Manchester metro network up to 92.5km, serving 92 stations. It’s the longest network in the UK by far (in second place is Sheffield, with a measly 29km), though it’s still nowhere near as long as many networks in Europe, which stretch to 100km or more.