COMMENT
An improving picture
RATP Dev is contracted to provide a certain level of service, so is answerable when there are failings that are within its control. Lamonte said: “I’ve had the French director of RATP Dev in; he’s done a very good piece of analysis on what some of those failings were and what can be done about them.
“[Retiring Metrolink director] Philip Purdy, who is just about to return to Australia, spent about a month with MRDL looking at how we can improve the service for customers.
“They’ve negotiated a new communications lead, to try to improve the communications messages and the responses, so we’re getting information far more quickly out to customers. It’s available on the website and is up-to- date. They’ve brought in a new head of HR, to make sure that they have the right resources in place, and they’re bringing in more senior management to improve it. So I’m far more confident in that.
“To say there aren’t challenges wouldn’t be true. We still have the signalling system issues; we’re not fully operating our tram management system yet; there are some significant bits of work to do over the next few months. But that is the key to unlocking the fully functioning system we all want to see.
“We’re hoping to see the East Didsbury extension open early this summer, Rochdale and Oldham town centres at the back end of this year, and the extension to Ashton, then we can get on with the airport line, and I’m hoping we can get Government go-ahead for a Trafford line.”
The problems with the tram management system also mean that most of the network’s passenger information displays don’t show any
information at all, leaving passengers to rely on occasional tannoy announcements when there are problems, unless they have a smartphone with internet access.
“We’re absolutely trying to get those passenger information displays to work,” Lamonte said. “It is part of the overall tram management system that we’re contracted to Thales for. Part of that is to get those displays up and running, and we’ll make every effort to do that.”
Revenue and ridership
There are no passenger counts, so ridership calculations are based on season ticket and ticket machine sales, plus concessionary journey statistics where those are available.
The latest public figures, for December 2012, suggest 1,408,000 ticket machine sales across the network, and 420,000 season ticket sales.
Settling in
Lamonte did not know Manchester until he moved to the city for the TfGM job. “I’d been to visit Chadderton and Woodford in my previous life in the air force, but had never been here. Everyone told me it would be cold and rainy, but – as we look out on a glorious day today – it’s hardly rained in the three months I’ve been here!
“There are lots of urban myths about Manchester. But I think it’s a very friendly place, people are incredibly dedicated to what we’re trying to do. The ambition to change things is absolutely amazing, and I see that across the 10 districts, in a way that any city would envy. You can see why Greater Manchester is the envy of other places around the country and rightly so. It’s great to be here.”
The latest public report from the Metrolink director to the TfGM committee says: “Patronage including estimated concessions in December of 2.3 million was 9,000 below budget but was 227,000 ahead of December 2011…We are consistently achieving above the forecasted patronage.”
Lamonte said: “There are some surprising things for me. I get the stats every week, and have been out there myself on the trams to see for myself. Even in off-peak hours, ridership is incredibly high.
“We know that. If we could run more trams along the line to Rochdale, through Oldham, we’d fill them up in the peak; people are having to wait at Oldham. We’re almost a victim of our own success.
“On the Droylsden route, as I look at the number of tickets that are sold, it’s pretty steady – but just look at the difference it makes on match days, for the Etihad stadium.”
Manchester City players and manager Roberto Mancini have recorded voice-over announcements for trams on that route. “It’s a small thing I know, but it makes a real difference, and that’s a real success,” Lamonte said.
“[Metrolink is] operating to budget. We made budgetary assumptions some time ago, and it’s at least meeting our revenue assumptions, if not exceeding them.
“RATP Dev are absolutely clear that they want to make a success of the Manchester operation.
“We’ve had a number of operators – Serco, Stagecoach – but RATP are doing their very best to do the best job, and they are gearing up for a much larger operation, building up to 94 trams.”
26 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 13
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