Woodlands Road tram stop
Woodlands Road was a tram stop on the Bury Line of the Metrolink system in the Cheetham Hill area of north Manchester, England. It opened in 1913 as a heavy rail station and closed for conversion to light rail in 1991, opening with the new Metrolink system in 1992.
Woodlands Road was the closest station to the Manchester Museum of Transport on Boyle Street. Two new stations opened nearby,, which led to the closure of the stop on 16 December 2013.
History
The original railway line was opened in 1879 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway between Manchester Victoria and Bury. Woodlands Road, and stations were added to the line in 1913, in an attempt to fend off growing electric tramway competition in the Cheetham Hill area. The original halt had wooden platforms. The site is near the vanished junction of a former branch line to the chemical works in Blackley.Closure
The UK Government announced that £4 million from the Community Infrastructure Fund was awarded to build two new stops on the Bury Metrolink line. This was part of £30 million allocated to transport projects to support thousands of extra homes being built across the country over the coming months. The Chairman of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority, Councillor Keith Whitmore, stated that the funding would help realise a long-held ambition to open new Metrolink stops in the area.The two new stops were:
- , situated close to the Abraham Moss Centre, the library and leisure centre and the City College Manchester; it is located approximately as the crow flies from Woodlands Road station.
- , providing a closer stop to the Museum of Transport. The site is close to the Queens Road tram depot and there was a small tram halt there for Metrolink staff only, which was replaced by a full passenger station. The station opened on 16 December 2013.