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The supertram that has been purchased by GMPTE for use on the Metrolink track extension, due to open in 2010.
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Preparing the groundwork for tram line to Didsbury
Adele Forrest3/ 4/2008
HOPES that the Metrolink line could be extended to Didsbury were raised after residents received letters warning them that environmental work is due to start in the suburb.
The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) informed householders that ecological surveys and investigations will begin next week and run until November.
The survey will investigate the likely environmental impact on Didsbury if the Metrolink network was extended.
More than 300 letters were sent to homes that would back onto the East Didsbury Metrolink line if GMPTE’s £500 million bid to the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund is approved.
David Harris from GMPTE said: "Around 1,100 letters have been sent out in total, including over 500 to residents and businesses backing onto the site of the new line between Trafford Bar and St Werburgh’s Road in Chorlton."
If plans to extend the tram system to Didsbury were approved, the line would link up with the existing Trafford Bar stop, through a new spur which is due to be created between Firswood, the centre of Chorlton and St Werburgh’s Road, Chorlton by 2010.
It would see the line split at the St Werburgh’s Road stop with one line heading to Manchester Airport - with another stop at Hough End - and the second line heading to Withington, Burton Road, West Didsbury, Didsbury Village and East Didsbury.
A decision on the plan is not expected from the Government until after the local elections in May.
If they give the green light to the extension new tram stops would be created on West Didsbury’s Princess Parkway near Hough End Playing Fields, and at Burton Road and Lapwing Lane.
In Didsbury village, a new stop would be built off School Lane near Olive Shapley Avenue and in East Didsbury there would be a new station between Tesco on Kingsway and the allotments on Parrs Wood Lane. The line would also be extended out to Stockport bus station if further funding is approved.
Councillor David Sandiford for the Didsbury East ward said: "These surveys are all a good idea, this should be done, but we don’t know if the government will approve funding." GMPTE says work will not require homes to be inspected. It will mainly involve a study of trees in Didsbury that may be cleared if the Metrolink comes to the village.
Most work will be carried out between 8am and 6pm but some investigations will go on into the night as the specialist team observe for bats and other nocturnal species.
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21/04/2008 at 21:50
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3/05/2008 at 13:04