page_title: Manchester Metrolink
section_title: Phase 1: Bury, Altrincham and Manchester city centre
hierarchical_section_title: Manchester Metrolink / History / Construction / Phase 1: Bury, Altrincham and Manchester city centre
caption_attribution_description: English: View from Piccadilly Station approach, Manchester
context_page_description: Manchester Metrolink is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along 65 miles of standard-gauge track, making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Kingdom. Metrolink is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated and maintained under contract by a Keolis/Amey consortium. In 2018/19, 43.7 million passenger journeys were made on the system.
  The network consists of eight lines which radiate from Manchester city centre to termini at Altrincham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, East Didsbury, Eccles, Manchester Airport, Rochdale and Trafford Centre. It consists of a mixture of on-street track shared with other traffic; reserved track sections, segregated from other traffic, and converted former railway lines. It is operated by a fleet of Bombardier M5000s.
  A light rail system for Greater Manchester emerged from the failure of the 1970s Picc-Vic tunnel scheme to obtain central government funding. A light-rail scheme was proposed in 1982 as the least expensive rail-based transport solution for Manchester city centre and the surrounding Greater Manchester metropolitan area.
context_section_description: Beginning on July 1991, the first Phase of Metrolink involved the conversion of two suburban heavy rail lines to light rail operation — the Bury-Victoria line in the north and the Altrincham-Piccadilly line in the south — and the construction of a street-level tramway through the city centre to connect the two. Tracks were laid down along a 1.9-mile (3.1 km) route from Victoria station, via Market Street to the G-Mex, with a 0.4-mile (0.64 km) branch to Piccadilly station. This route is now known as the First City Crossing (1CC), and it was built with network expansion in mind.
  A fleet of 26 AnsaldoBreda T-68 light rail vehicles was procured to operate the 19.2-mile (30.9 km) network. Construction was carried out by the GMA Group (a consortium of AMEC, GM Buses, John Mowlem & Company, and GEC), costing £145 million (equivalent to £302 million in 2019).
  Metrolink was initially scheduled to open in September 1991, but services did not begin until 1992, when the Bury Line opened as far as Victoria on 6 April.  The first street-level trams began running on 27 April between Victoria and G-Mex (now Deansgate-Castlefield), the Altrincham line opened on 15 June, and the branch to Piccadilly station opened on 20 July. Metrolink was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 July 1992.
caption: Phase 1 construction of the core section of the network near Manchester Piccadilly, 1991
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