Hello, first things first, you may have noticed that I have removed several posts from my website here on my blog. Sadly, I have decided that I am no longer going to continue visiting every single station in the United Kingdom; it’s just too much of a big challenge. However, I am going to be bringing back my Branch Line Series in the near future, so do look forward to that.

I am continuing my quest to visit every Metrolink stop in Greater Manchester, this time on the East Didsbury line. I had a fantastic trip filming a new video for my YouTube channel. I plan to return next week to film the next three episodes and collect photos for the blog. I began my journey back at Deansgate Castlefield, with my first stop being Trafford Bar.

This line was quite easy to tick off due to the very frequent trams from Bury, Manchester Victoria, Rochdale, and Shaw. The line was packed with single and double trams, which is always nice to see. This allowed me to tick off each station one after the other. From Trafford Bar, we branch off towards East Didsbury, still following the line towards Manchester Airport. I got off at Firswood, the first stop on the branch.

From Firswood, I headed to Chorlton and decided to visit the nearby Cafe Nero to charge my phone and recharge my own batteries. I noticed a lot of Metrolink Ticket Inspectors on the line and was curious about their presence. It turns out they can check almost everyone coming on or off the tram and on the platforms too. I was rather confused by this as on Merseyrail that rarely happens.

From Chorlton, I headed to my next stop, St Werburgh’s Road, which is another interchange for services towards Manchester Airport. I also quite like the stop because it’s an island platform, unlike the previous two stops from Firswood and Chorlton, which have regular platforms on either side of the line, similar to those at National Rail stations. One thing to note is that the East Didsbury line shares an old railway towards Stockport, which is sadly now partially disused.

From St Werburgh’s Road, I firmly headed onto the main section of the East Didsbury line, this time leaving the line heading towards Manchester Airport. The first stop on the main section is Withington, which I rather liked. The name is quite amusing too. However, we continue on with only four stops left. As I mentioned before, with the line being very frequent, it’s easy to complete the East Didsbury line in an hour.

Our next stop is Burton Road. There’s not much to say here, but all the stations on this line are quite similar and rather boring, if I might add. They have a very generic look, typical of Metrolink stops. However, they do have their own unique style, with concrete being the main material used on all the new platforms on the Metrolink. You’ll notice this a lot when we cover the line from Pomona to the Trafford Centre.

From Burton Road, we head to West Didsbury, with only two stops left. I enjoyed exploring the line from Deansgate, but I had planned to take the line to the Trafford Centre. Unfortunately, I mistakenly boarded an Altrincham tram, which is why I started at Trafford Bar instead of continuing to Pomona. However, I’m really glad I did the East Didsbury line. I am planning to do all 99 stops in a day at the end of the series!

Our penultimate stop is Didsbury Village, which is more intriguing due to its relatively new housing estate from the 2000s. It stands out from the other stops on the line, which are mostly generic concrete blocks and, in my opinion, quite boring. Finally, we have just one more stop before reaching the end of the line at East Didsbury. This line originally used to continue towards Stockport, however the rest of the line is just a basic cycle path which I may do sometime.

There we have it, finally the end of the line, from here I headed towards East Didsbury national rail station on the line towards Manchester Airport where I continued the rest of my adventure. However I am planing to head back into Manchester tomorrow (Sunday) to finish my video and also re-film certain clips that went slightly wrong. However I really hope that you enjoyed this latest blog post and the next instalment of every Metrolink Stop!

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I am no longer continuing my quest to visit every single railway station. This is due to it being a rather large challenge, and I have to keep starting and stopping, which is quite annoying for me personally. So, with that said, my next blog will be about the Trafford line, and I am also going to visit Stockport bus station! Please leave a comment if you’ve ever ridden or visited those stations.