this is why i bought a car. i refuse to give them a penny

Absolutely ridiculous. I've already stopped using buses because they are unaffordable, and trains because their prices are extortionate. Now it looks like I'll have to give up on tram travel too. I already have to walk some distance to places like the dentist for example despite arthritis in my toes meaning my feet are so bad when I get home that I can't go out for the next day or so. Public transport is supposed to be a public service. Nowadays it's only for the rich. And if you check the equivalent journeys in London, you'll find that Manchester prices are even more expensive especially on buses. But whilst the government is calling for below inflation pay rises, this is another allowed over inflation rise for business so people are being squeezed by true inflation once again. The poorer you are, the more you are being squeezed.

Great so people are priced out of parking in town and now they are being priced off the tram.

Maybe if they had ticket inspectors to ensure people actually paid in the first place they might not need to put the fares up.

On a one off day peak time travel is already cheaper to drive into Manchester, including parking costs - if parking in one of the £3 car parks, than getting Metrolink. Though driving is not yet cheaper than a season ticket.

How can price rises and even the expansions be justified when there are almost daily problems? All this money will do is line the pockets of the executives in TFGM and Metrolink who should either be taking pay cuts or resigning or being sacked because they clearly are unable to deliver a system that works.

They can't even put contingencies in place when things go wrong. Often if there is a "failed" vehicle in the morning, then the service still isn't running correctly by the time the evening rush hour comes!

And yet they ask for more money....

We have Pat Karney and his ridiculously high Car Parking charges.
Now we have tram users being forced to pay more, which is way over the rate of inflation.
Loads of encouragement for people to come and shop and have fun in Manchester.
I would prefer to go shopping in Manchester, and i would normally drive to a Metrolink station, then go into Manchester. That will now occur less frequently or not at all now.






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At what point to these people realise that they are pricing people out of using public transport? When it becomes cheaper to drive a car than it does to use public transport, there is evidently something VERY wrong.

How can they justify price rises when:

1) Almost daily problems
2) "Normal Service" frequency is rarely kept to. For example on Bury line could be waiting between 2 seconds and 15 minutes or so, when normal service is supposed to be every 6 minutes.
3) No contingencies when things do go wrong, often service has not corrected hours later.
4) Very few, if any public service announcements at many stops (for example the other week I was waiting 50 minutes at Deansgate with no announcements)
5) Obcession with annoying passengers and drivers alike, by forcing drivers to change in the direction of rush hour traffic in the rush hour.
6) No decent or adequate shelters any most of the stations, especially the refurbished ones.
7) New yellow trams are clearly not fit for purpose, they have the same ride qualities as a white knuckle ride and in reality fit far less people on (even when considering the extra standing place).
8) New 2CC plans are increadibly short sighted and will not fix many of the issues it is supposed to, for example the delays (which lasted all day despite being fixed in morning) caused by an issue at Cornbrook will still occur with the 2CC, there is still a significant bottle neck between St. Peters Square and Cornbrook. Furthermore the only extra stop is near enough in Victoria itself and is pointless.
9) Current extensions are delayed, and delayed again. Though that is probably a good thing, as they just mean more failed vehicles and more delays.
10) No ticketing that fits peoples needs. There is for example no season ticket just to the city centre (it goes to the entire network). And there are no season tickets which cover just weekday travel.

If the system wasn't a load of old tripe, run be people who clearly do not know what they are doing - and it actually worked, then people might not be as fussed with the price rises.

It is quite obvious that Coun Fender does not get the tram because if he did he would agree that despite 4 increses in fare prices over the last 2 years there has been no improvement to the running of the service, in fact I would put it to him that it has gotten worse.

I am quite shocked that a service that causes so much unrest with its clients and is subseised by tax payers pounds (the passanger) does not warrant a thorough review, it is a scandal.

This increase is completely unacceptable and I am now looking at alternative means of getting in to Manchster.

Start the Greater Manchester Car Share Scheme!!!

Councillor Karney - wants to the Trafford Centre to start charging their shoppers - really ! - that's his answer to it. I must say, he and Manchester City Coucil are to blame for their obtuse ways of thinking.
These days I take the car in anyway - and pay a fiver for the privilidge, and it works out a hell of a lot cheaper for me and the Mrs - but Karney can't see it !
They can't see that metrolink needs to be HEAVILY subsidised to get the people using it as it should. It's a no brainer really - get people out of their cars and use a CHEAP metrolkink and then we'll see the footfall increase in the city centre - that's what we all want isn't it ? Metrolink continue to shoot themselved in the foot - when will they realise - IT''S TOO EXPENSIVE !

It's not a bad price compared to other forms of transport when you consider parking etc. This is the grumpy brigade being egged on by MEN. Metrolink is one of the best things to happen to Manchester.

The same thing happened with bus fares.

Someone's doing alright out of all of this.

The most angry comments here are from those who clearly never use the tram. An excellent service, well priced.

It is an indication of how superior the media regard the tiny minority of the population who actually have access to Light Rail, compared to the hundreds of thousands who depend on commercial bus services, that this website has not mentioned First Manchester's fare rises announced a fortnight ago, and due to come in to effect on Monday!

What does surprise me about these rises though, is that the Chorlton line will see increases at all, given that Metrolink are competing head on with Stagecoach buses on the route.

So the people who use the Eccles service are going to have almost twice the rise as the rest even though they only have half the services? I just missed a tram from Albert Square to Eccles the other day at 1.45 pm and watched TWO for every other destination go through before the next Eccles tram came. And the same thing happened a month ago at Piccadilly station at 8.30 am so it was not a coincidence.

Back to the car for me then.

I'm a regular user of Metrolink (both for short journeys-a couple of stops, and journeys into the city centre) I find the service to be regularly unreliable these days and I've been late on more than a couple of occasions picking my son up from school due to extensive delays in the service. I've had to get off at various stops and stand out in the cold to await another tram so they can 'make up time' I prefer to use the City centre over places like the Trafford Centre, however with no access to a car I'm going to start supporting my local town more as this is in walking distance and will cost me nothing at all, no waiting around platforms and more money in my pocket to spend on shopping or lunch! Maybe this fare increase will encourage more people to stay local as we are all trying to count the pennies! Give me an incentive Metrolink and I will continue to use your service, otherwise I like so many others will look at alternate ways of getting around or even just stay local and support our local towns and businesses instead!

9.37% rise on the Media City route.
Seems like a bit of exploitation of the hundreds of new workers who will be using the Metrolink to get to Media City.

Could the council please declare how much profit was taken by the company running the metrolink system last year. I know they said all of the money is pumped back in but we know that is not true there has to be a profit fo teh operators, so what is the value and percentage profit please. Bet they hide behind the 'it's commercially sensitive' argument.

What it doesn't say is some people will be better off if you use bus card extra. I used to pay £95.60 for a city centre to salford quays with bus extra because the minimum season price for a 4 weekly bus extra is £49 but a city to eccles 4 weekly is £47 so I had to get a ticket from woodlands road to make it above that amount.
Now with no increase on system one passes and a small increase on metrolink the ticket is now £51 for city to eccles making it above the threshold making a total of £80.60 making it almost 16% cheaper

All trams should be 4-cars long. Not joining two together, but instead order some middle cars, whilst these yellow trams are still new. The rise in cost would be covered by income from the rise in numbers. Our trams are even smaller than those in Nottingham. Eventually, price rises could slow, or even fall.

Eccles has had an unfairly cheap deal out of Metrolink for some time, so their 9% rise is warranted, however those on Alty and Bury whose trams are packed to the rafters should have all been frozen.

£6 a day to be treated like cattle. Fabbo.

'decided behind closed doors' - if all the cash is put back into the service how come it is commercially sensitive? A. The salaries paid to your masters like Purdy and the 'expenses' paid to Fender and his ilk would cause trouble if widely known; all of them are supposed to serve you, not dictate to you. Time for a change.

The answer is in your hands people...unite,fight and dont use the trams. Soon they will be begging you to use them at lower prices..

I thought the powers that be were trying to encourage people out of their cars onto public transport? That's obviously a load of rubbish, it's about shareholders dividends !!!!

How can you ask for more money due to expanding the network. people on the old lines are not going to use the new routes as they would say travel from Bury to Manchester. it like asking someone in Oldham to build a new road in London. new lines has to pay there own way just like buses have to as bus firm cant run routes losing money then ask other routes to pay for them as it breaks the rules.

you got the comments headline wrong: Danger of pricing people out out of PRIVATE transport. There is no such thing as public transport in the UK...

Rome 2h Metro/Bus Ticket £0.90
Berlin Tram Metro Bus 90min travel all £1.20
New York 3h Subway ticket £1

Manchester single bus fare £3.50

No one cares, certainly not in the council...