Manchester - Transport

Transport

Manchester and North West England are served by Manchester Airport. The airport is the third busiest in the United Kingdom and the largest outside the London region. Airline services exist to many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than from London Heathrow). A second runway was opened in 2001 and there have been continued terminal improvements. Despite being a regional airport, the airport currently has the highest rating available, "Category 10" encompassing an elite group of airports which are able to handle "Code F" aircraft including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8. From September 2010 the airport became one of only 17 airports in the world and the only airport other than Heathrow Airport to operate the Airbus A380 in the United Kingdom.

Manchester is well served by the rail network. In terms of passengers, Manchester Piccadilly was the busiest English railway station outside London in 2007/08 and the third busiest in 2008/09. Local operator Northern Rail and First Transpennine Express operates all over the North of England, and other national operators include East Midlands Trains and Virgin Trains. The city's other main central railway station, Manchester Victoria, had many more platforms before the arrival of the Manchester Arena than it now has. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first passenger railway in the world. Manchester is at the centre of an extensive countywide railway network with two mainline stations: Piccadilly and Victoria. Manchester city centre is also serviced by over a dozen rail-based park and ride sites. In October 2007, the government announced that a feasibility study had been ordered into increasing the capacity at Piccadilly Station and turning Manchester into the rail hub of the north. Future improvements include a £560 million Northern Hub scheme by Network Rail to alleviate bottlenecks on Manchester's rail routes and, if constructed, the High Speed 2 link to London.

Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. The present system mostly runs on former commuter rail lines converted for light rail use, and crosses the city centre via on-street tram lines. The 23 mi (37 km)-network consists of three lines with 37 stations (including five on-street tram stops in the centre). An expansion programme is underway which will create 4 new lines to add to the current 3 and will be at least 99 stops, 62 more than in 2010. Upon completion Manchester will have the largest tram system in the UK.

The city has one of the most extensive bus networks outside London with over 50 bus companies operating in the Greater Manchester region radiating from the city. Before the deregulation of 1986, SELNEC and later GMPTE operated all buses in Manchester. The bus system was then taken over by GM Buses which after privatisation was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South and at a later date these were taken over by First Greater Manchester and Stagecoach Manchester respectively. First Greater Manchester also operates a three route zero-fare bus service called Metroshuttle which carries commuters around Manchester's business districts. Stagecoach Manchester is the Stagecoach Group's largest subsidiary and operates around 690 buses and serves 87 million passengers a year. One of its services is the 192 bus service, the busiest bus route in the UK.

An extensive canal network remains from the Industrial Revolution, nowadays mainly used for leisure. The Manchester Ship Canal is open, but traffic to the upper reaches is light.