Manchester is set for a huge summer of music as the city will host a number of events including Parklife festival and Oasis homecoming gigs at Heaton Park. However, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has announced that Manchester city centre will face tram disruptions during the two major summer music events.
TfGM is set to carry out essential track replacement work between Piccadilly station and Piccadilly Gardens from next week (June 3) until August 11. As a result, no tram services running via Piccadilly Gardens during that period.
The track replacement work forms part of the next phase of a £147m programme to maintain, upgrade and improve Greater Manchester’s tram network.
This year’s Parklife festival, which 50 Cent and Charli XCX will be headlining, will take place on June 14 and 15, with around 80,000 people expected to attend the event. As for the Manchester leg of the Oasis tour, Liam and Noel Gallagher have reunited to perform five gigs at Heaton Park on July 11, 12, 16, 19 and 20.
Ian Davies, TfGM’s Network Director for Metrolink, said: “This is a major piece of our coordinated package of track replacement works which will see a £147m investment in the network up to 2027. Metrolink forms a key part of the Bee Network and, as the country’s largest light rail network, carried 46 million passenger journeys last year alone.
“It plays a vital role in keeping Greater Manchester moving, supporting economic growth and connecting people to jobs, education and opportunity. That is why it’s so important to continually invest in the network to keep it safe, reliable and accessible for years to come.
“We’re doing everything we can to minimise disruption to people’s journeys – and I’d also like to reassure people that we have detailed plans in place to manage the big events coming up during this summer’s big events.”
When will Manchester likely face tram disruptions?
The work has been planned for the summer as it is outside of the football season and also partly falls within the school holidays, when the tram network is less busy. Essential track replacement work between Piccadilly station and Piccadilly Gardens will take place between Tuesday 3rd June and Sunday 10th August and no trams will run via Piccadilly Gardens. Normal tram services resume on Monday 11 August.
Will there be any changes to services during Manchester tram disruptions?
- Trams on the Altrincham/Bury lines won’t serve Piccadilly Gardens or Piccadilly station. Services will run between Altrincham and Bury via Market Street.
- All trams from Ashton and Etihad Campus will terminate at Piccadilly station. Signage will be in place to direct passengers walking to Market Street to connect to services across the city and beyond. Passengers will be able to use the fully wheelchair accessible free bus services around the city to connect to tram services at St Peter’s Square, Deansgate Castlefield or Victoria. A replacement bus will run outside the usual free bus operating times.
- Eccles services (via MediaCityUK) will run to Victoria via Market Street.
- MediaCityUK to Etihad Campus peak time services will not run during these works. There will be extra double trams on the Eccles – Victoria via MediaCityUK service, to boost capacity.
How to travel to Heaton Park for Parklife and Oasis gigs
Trams will run directly to Heaton Park from Victoria for those travelling to the music events at the park. However, TfGM has also created bespoke, detailed plans to ensure the network can manage the extra demand from big upcoming events, including Oasis’ run of gigs at Heaton Park and Parklife.