We get what we pay for. Subsidy for Metrolink is a fraction of what Rail recieves, mile per mile.

Subsidise it properly, you get a Virgin Pendolino with 125mph quality railway tracks.

If you're not subsidising it, you get a little yellow bus on rail-wheels, with elastic bands holding the overhead wires together.

Metrolink's saving grace is that motorists who don't use Metrolink, don't really fund it much, unlike rail services.