The “Wilmslow Road corridor” in Manchester is reputedly the busiest bus route in Europe, carrying thousands of students from the south of the city into the city centre and the two universities. A section of the route, from Rusholme to the city centre, is currently being transformed into a bus priority route with extensive “Dutch-style” segregated cycle lanes. The current works have exposed some of the history of the city’s earlier transport network. These images taken near the John Dalton Building, MMU show the exposed cobblestones and old tram tracks.
The old tramway network can be seen on this isochrone map from 1914 produced by the city’s Tramway Department.
The section of tramlines in the photos can be seen on the isochrome map next to the word Wilmslow (Road) to the South of the centre, in the blue zone. A modern day isochrone map of Manchester can be seen on this Mapnificent map.
I’m never quite sure why the Metrolink system was never extended to cover this corridor, you would imagine it would be a very popular and profitable route.
Nick Gould, March 2017