‘Rolls-Royce’ service as trams return to the line

11:05am Thursday 13th September 2007

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THE trams were back on track today - with the new Metrolink boss pronouncing to passengers: "You've had the Fiat, now for the Rolls-Royce".

Andy Morris, managing director, can put on the bold front because he also runs Sheffield's Supertram, which followed Greater Manchester in the tram renaissance of the 1990s but is now deemed to be more impressive.

Mr Morris works for bus giant Stagecoach, which, in 1997, stopped Supertram going off the rails when South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (PTE) hit problems.

Stagecoach took over Metrolink from Serco at 3am on Sunday, July 15. The new regime - victors in the contract battle over French railway operators Keolis - took possession of the operation which was already embroiled in a £100million upgrade of the 50-year-old tracks between Bury and Altrincham and the city centre.

"It's been hectic but it's gone very well," he said.

His first job was to order a big clean up of every tram interior.

"Let's just say they were in need of some tender loving care," he said. "There just hasn't been enough emphasis on the ambience of the system, and the passengers do notice that.

"They will feel that they are getting a little bit more high class journey. It will drive down graffiti and make the whole experience more comfortable and clean."

The passengers will not, sadly, be noticing the introduction of conductors, a feature which Sheffield boasts.

Bury's trams are just not big enough and although the eight new ones, due in early 2009, will be wider, it just isn't possible to have conductors only on some trams.

What we are promised instead is that every ticket machine will be ripped out and replaced with new ones which will have credit card readers and note changers which actually work.

And some time next year, the old - and clean - will start to go into the depot for a "refresh", a 42-day process to completely gut the interiors and replace all the fittings as well as repainting the outside.

Owners Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, which will now exercise more control over the network than ever before, has yet to decide on a new livery.

It will be applied to all the old trams and the eight new ones - there is an option to increase the new fleet to 12 if Salford's media city becomes a reality.

At a special open day at the Supertram depot in Sheffield, the director general of South Yorkshire PTE claimed that his city's trams were far better than Manchester's.

Mr Morris, who will look after both, did not disagree. "We've got the Rolls-Royce here," he said. "In Manchester, they've got the Fiat.

"But in fairness, that is all the government was prepared to pay for at the time. I promise that we will make Manchester as good as it is possible, given the fleet we are inheriting. I want to make it a totally different experience."