IT WAS the gleaming £36.5m tram station that had everything... apart from a tramline to run through it.
When it was built in 2005 the state-of-the-art stop, at Central Park, in Newton Heath, was meant to serve passengers on the proposed Oldham and Rochdale line.
But the on-off saga over the Metrolink extension meant it has been left unused for four years.
But finaly the station looks set for action.
Work has at last started on the long-awaited loop and transport bosses say that trams will finally roll through in spring 2011 - six years after it was finished.
The stop, at the heart of a new business park which will host the new police headquarters in 2011, was constructed to serve the original planned expansion.
Complete with copper canopy and finback bridge, town hall bosses hoped it would spearhead a huge regeneration of east Manchester.
Original plans to expand the tram network to Rochdale and Oldham - as well as Manchester airport and Ashton under Lyne - were announced by the government in 2001.
But cost spiralled - and ministers scrapped the project, nicknamed the 'Big Bang', in July 2004.
That came as a huge blow to bosses at Greater Manchester Transport Executive, Manchester city council, and the European Regional Development Fund, who had help fund the station.
They completed the job regardless.
In the meantime, the M.E.N. launched a huge campaign to get the 'Big Bang' back on track.
Despite huge pressure, and a promise from then prime minister Tony Blair, it was not until July 2006 that the government said it WOULD fund an expansion of Metrolink after all.
The new plan, called the 'Little Bang', included the line to Rochdale and Oldham - but not running as far as their respective town centres.
The two years of uncertainty meant transport chiefs had to re-start the bidding process to complete the work.
But building the new route HAS now begun - and Philip Purdy, GMPTE's Metrolink director, said he was pleased the station would come into action.
He added: "We have always said that the Central Park Metrolink stop would play an important part in the regeneration of East Manchester so I'm glad that work to bring it into use is now under way on the ground.
"It's a stunning piece of modern architecture and was a statement of ambition when it opened. We had to fight hard to ensure that that ambition was realised - but the fact is we're on schedule for services to start running from spring 2011.
"Carrying out the work in advance has allowed us to bring Metrolink to this important part of Manchester sooner rather than later - and at a landmark facility too."
Transport chiefs in Greater Manchester announced earlier this year they had managed to raise a £1.4bn 'war chest' to close the funding gap and complete the 'Big Bang' expansion.
That means trams will run to Rochdale and Oldham town centres, after all.
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keyjockey, Manchester (08/07/2009 at 14:17)
Superbean 123 (08/07/2009 at 14:58)
Free Red, Manchester (08/07/2009 at 15:05)
That's not what I heard. I have always understood that the money set aside for expanding the tram infrastructure was reallocated to the London Underground as part of the Olympic bid. I might be wrong about this but what’s important to me is that the works are not getting paid for out of a totally unjustifiable congestion charge.
Not a Number, just down the road (08/07/2009 at 15:51)
This they call progress...........
with apologies to the original, written when the double deck trams were withdrawn sixty years ago, in favour of the lower cost lower capacity motor buses.
PB Crumpsall, Manchester (08/07/2009 at 16:23)
Maynard Kitchener Lampwick Manchester , (08/07/2009 at 16:39)
Acid, Chadderton (08/07/2009 at 16:58)
irrelevant, Salford (08/07/2009 at 17:12)
Mike Waterfoot (09/07/2009 at 05:48)
Also, all you Rochdale folks who now take their bikes on the train to Victoria and then cycle to work can forget it. No bikes on trams, no dogs either.
No toilets on the trams and as the journey between Manchester and Rochdale is going to take half as long again as the current train I can just imagine what the state of the carriages will be like after Friday and Saturday night's revelries
A Bus Driver (09/07/2009 at 08:52)
And anybody complaining about Stagecoach operating it should focus the blame on GMPTE who were irresponsible in allowing Serco to abuse the assets and run off with the profits although not doing what they had been contracted to. Stagecoach have inherited cheap trams and infrastructure that is worn out and are probably doing their best with what is on offer at the present time. They seem to be able to run a showpiece tram system in Sheffield although that one wasn't built on the cheap like Metrolink was.