Manchester Organises New Year Transport

06/11/2007

Manchester’s bus and tram operators are gearing up to give New Year’s Eve party-goers better public transport than in previous years.

Stagecoach will celebrate its first festive period as Metrolink operator by running trams until 1.45am on New Year's Eve - more than three hours later than last year. Christmas Eve trams will run until 10.30pm, which is also later than previous years.

Manchester's biggest bus company First will run extra services on Boxing Day, and special late night buses have been scheduled until 4am on New Year’s Day to take revellers home from their New Year’s Eve parties.

Those wishing to travel by train will not have such a good experience, however. All train services in Manchester will be running down from 7pm on Christmas Eve. TransPennine Express will run a normal timetable on New Year's Eve but other companies will reduce their services from 8pm.

The rail line at Longsight will be closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, and services will terminate at Stockport. Services to and from Buxton will go to Victoria. Trains via Marple and Guide Bridge will operate as normal.

The disruption to train services is due to engineering work on lines to the north and south of the city. GMPTE's Mike Renshaw said the work would “improve reliability” because "this work is being undertaken in one session rather than disrupt many weekends throughout the year."