Could Manchester’s Metrolink be heading for Warrington?

COULD Manchester’s highly acclaimed Metrolink tram network be heading for Warrington?

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham confirmed earlier this week that a proposed Mid-Cheshire extension of the network would be “in the direction of Warrington.”
He said: “That is what we are looking at, so there’s an early piece of work underway to look at what that would mean. Obviously lots of people commute to Greater Manchester from the Warrington area.”
But he stressed that a line to Warrington was not a priority.
“It’s a medium-to-long term consideration.”

Mr Burnham has strong links with the Warrington area – he lived in Culcheth in his younger days.
And the idea of a tram-train link between Warrington and Manchester is not new. The mayor hinted at plans for “tram-trains” to Warrington as long ago as 2019.
A year earlier, a “Trams for Warrington” group, led by Ian Buttress, former principal transportation officer with Greater Manchester Council, and leader of the team that developed the Metrolink system, was advocating a tram system for Warrington to help solve the town’s chronic traffic congestion problems.

They believed there was a need to improve the town’s infrastructure to support developments in the south of the borough and that can be achieved by a tram network.
The ultimate aim would be for Warrington Trams to have a link to the Metrolink system in Greater Manchester – probably in the Altrincham area.
Until 1935, Warrington had a five-line tramway service linking the town ccntre with Stockton Heath, Sankey Bridges, Latchford and Bruche. It was a victim of competition from cars and buses and under-investment.