Richard Baum

The cost of some Metrolink season tickets will go up from Friday 1 February, following the increases in single and return fares just two months ago. Weekly tickets will rise by up to 60p and quarterly tickets by up to  £7.  

Metrolink management claim that these fare rises are fair, and that the Metrolink offers good value for money. But once again they show just how out of touch and wrong they are.

The new increases means that it now costs £21.80 a week to go from Bury to Manchester, and £232 a quarter. This is more expensive than a number of city centre car parks, and despite the fare rises the quality of service provided by Metrolink is, in many aspects utterly woeful. 

I have said it before, and I’ll keep on saying it – there are too few trams, they are frequently late, almost always disgustingly dirty, and too often a Metrolink journey is disrupted by rowdy passengers unsupervised by police and unwatched by security. It’s a thoroughly nasty experience, and it doesn’t tempt anyone out of their cars except those forced to weigh up the general unpleasantness of the Met with the equally unpleasant congestion.

We have a third rate system in the Metrolink. The experience is nothing compared to the London Underground, itself hardly a paragon of virtue. Once again we are let down by a government intent on talking the talk on public transport, but not matching rhetoric with money. Fares go up, passengers get angrier, and the service doesn’t improve fast enough.

This isn’t good enough, and I will continue to campaign for better central funding, better services and more realistic fares for Metrolink until they come our way.

Rick