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From tomorrow there is going to be a regular passenger service on rails for the first time since 1967 (Ted will correct me if I got the year wrong). Although passangers won't be able to use it until the 21st of June and even that is if all the testing goes to plan.
In 1907 it took 10 minutes to get to the city centre from my town, in 2010 it took over 35 minutes by public transport in peak times. Now it will take 12 minutes.
You can see a fence on this picture and you can see behind it they are building yet another tram line, this time to Didsbury.
My mates all think I am a geek for being interested and excited about this, but if people can get to work much quicker they have more spare time and that makes cities richer.
I was speaking to some civil engineers who have been working on the project for the past two years and some of the level of engineering that has gone into make just 1.8 miles (it joins the existing network at that point) of tram line is staggering.
I don't think it will save me much car journeys as I tend to get the tram into the city centre anyway (but involves a mile drive to get there) but I guess it will save me about 50 miles a year.
I am hoping once the extensions are all built it will mean a few people decide to ditch their cars, if they are not running expensive cars they have more money to spend on technology :D which means more money for me.
I am also hoping it might mean less traffic, so I can get to jobs quicker and save petrol in the process.
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