More than £20m will be invested to improve the Metrolink network over the next 12 months, to ensure services remain safe and reliable for years to come. The UK’s largest light rail network has 99 stops across 64 miles of track – more than 700 million journeys have been made
At the height of accreditation and qualification, WT Jenkins takes a firm stance on best practice. Striving to provide an electrical contracting service that excels from start to finish and is guaranteed to last, the company takes customer satisfaction to the nth degree. Established in 1971, WT Jenkins has quickly
More than £20m will be invested to improve the Metrolink network over the next 12 months, to ensure services remain safe and reliable for years to come. The UK’s largest light rail network has 99 stops across 64 miles of track – more than 700 million journeys have been made on the trams since opening in 1992. The £21.4m funding – from the government’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) – will ensure the network keeps on delivering safe, reliable and accessible services for millions more people into the future. Approved by the Bee Network committee on Thursday, the work is part of a planned £147m package to maintain, upgrade and improve the network up to 2027. Immediate priorities for this summer include track replacement in several parts of the city centre, including Piccadilly Gardens and London Road, and on parts of the Altrincham and Bury Lines. This will mean quicker, smoother and more reliable journeys for passengers. Plans also include a programme of modifications to the trams themselves, installing state-of-the art systems to keep passengers safe. These include sensors in the middle of double trams and speed warning devices. New electrical substations are being added along parts of the Bury Line, providing additional power so that more doubles trams run in future. Metrolink is also replacing much of the communications network critical to the operation of its signalling and control systems. TfGM is also looking into the replacement of overhead lines on some of the older parts of the network such as the Bury Line, which caused several prolonged disruptions in 2023. Long-term benefits to passengers include better reliability and an improved experience for customers. The work will mean some short-term disruption, which will be planned to minimise inconvenience to passengers. Information about service changes and replacement bus services will be available well in advance of the work. Metrolink passenger numbers are back to pre-pandemic levels during the weekday peak times and even busier on weekends. With 130,000 journeys on an average weekday, work on the network is planned carefully to keep disruption to a minimum. Danny Vaughan, TfGM’s Head of Metrolink, said: “Metrolink is an integral part of the Bee Network, and it’s really important that we invest in it so that we can continue to provide a safe, reliable and positive experience for the thousands of people who travel with us every day. “This is a coordinated package of planned works to maintain, renew and improve the network and help to keep Greater Manchester moving, and while we understand any disruption can be frustrating, we’ll be doing everything we can to keep it to a minimum. “We will make sure passengers know what’s happening well in advance and I’d ask people to please bear with us while the works are carried out, as the benefits will be there to be enjoyed for years to come.” Upcoming works include: Further works are planned to take place throughout this – and subsequent – years. For full details of tram improvement works planned for this year, visit tfgm.com/tram-improvement-works Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
At the height of accreditation and qualification, WT Jenkins takes a firm stance on best practice. Striving to provide an electrical contracting service that excels from start to finish and is guaranteed to last, the company takes customer satisfaction to the nth degree. Established in 1971, WT Jenkins has quickly become one of the leading electrical contractors in the North West following prolonged expansion and diversification since its début. The company now specialises in the supply, installation and maintenance of floodlighting, road lighting, public realm lighting and traffic signage, and prides itself on a consumer-facing outlook. A great part of achieving such a positive working relationship with clients is the care WT Jenkins takes to not only source the best people, but retain the best people. Subscribing to the company’s ethos of “the customers is always right” is the first requisite but all operatives are also JIB-Graded, and assessed under the HEA (formerly ASLEC) competent persons scheme, as well enjoying opportunities for regular training and development well beyond that which is expected. In fact, WT Jenkins boasts a workforce of qualified electricians from top to bottom, a unique quality that Steve Murray, Joint Managing Director, is keen to stress provides a leading-edge: “Between myself, Tony King (joint MD) our two contracts managers, general foreman and site supervisors, we have over 200 years of combined experience in the electrical industry. That provides us the ground on which to educate our staff and inspire a shared vision of good quality, on time workmanship, carried out in the safest possible manner.” And in the electrical contracting industry, safety is of course paramount. Over the last six years, WT Jenkins has worked closely with two of biggest innovators in health and safety, Laing O’Rourke and MPT during the regeneration of Manchester’s rail network. The company has undertaken all electrical works on Manchester Metrolink’s newly-formed platforms, as well as completing road lighting works in the surrounding towns of Oldham and Rochdale as part of the region’s major regeneration. Working for such a high-profile, public sector client bears great expectations though WT Jenkins continues to prove itself more than capable of the challenge. As Steve explains, “During the process we’ve been set challenging targets to complete all works to a high standard and also deliver a target zero safe project. Not only have we achieved this but we’ve been awarded for our efforts at the MPT supply chain award evenings.” It was during those ceremonies that WT Jenkins picked up a phenomenal 11 awards in testament to not only its quality or exceptional health and safety record, but also for innovation. Since its inception, the company has been keen to lead by example and one of the first to invest in accreditation and trade affiliation. Having been a member of the Electrical Contractors’ Association for over 40 years, WT Jenkins has remained at the forefront of the latest in policy and practice, utilising the association as a technical educational resource, as well as marketing tool with which to gain new leads. As Northwest Regional Chairman and National Council member of ECA, Steve is unequivocal about the benefits of membership; the company has had assistance with everything from debt recovery and contract disputes, as well enjoying ECA’s specialist BIM seminars. And with a relocation to larger premises and a rapidly-filling order book, WT Jenkins’ pioneering identity in the sector is only to get more pronounced. The overarching ambition however, will remain much the same and, irrespective of expansion or diversification, the company will continue to place customers at the heart of its business.
