Zone 1 - Manchester Metrolink
Legend
toBury toOldham &Rochdale Zone 1 Victoria Shudehill Exchange Square Market Street Piccadilly Gardens St Peter's Square Piccadilly Deansgate-Castlefield ( Deansgate) New Islington Cornbrook to Ashton- under-Lyne stop in bothZone 1 and 2   to MediaCityUK,Eccles &The Trafford Centre Trafford Bar toAltrincham to East Didsbury &Manchester Airport
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Zone 1 of theManchester Metrolinklight rail network is the heart of the system where all of the other lines converge. Its boundaries approximately mirror the city'sInner Ring Road. Within Zone 1, first opened in 1992 as theCity Zone,trams largely run along semi-pedestrianised streets rather than on their own separate alignment.

The first City Zone route ran fromVictoria station viaMarket Street toG-Mex (now Deansgate-Castlefield), and a branch toPiccadilly station opened later and created a three-waydelta junction nearPiccadilly Gardens. A second route between the South-West and North-Eastern parts of the network was built to ease congestion on the original line. Opened in 2017, the Second City Crossing (2CC) added one additional stop to the network atExchange Square.

There are currently (as of 2024) 10 stops in Zone 1.^[1] From north to south:

Manchester Metrolink stops in Zone 1

Stop name	Interchanges	Line	Opening date	Notes
Victoria		Bury Line	6 April 1992	Sits on site of former railway station platforms. Connected to theManchester Arena.
Shudehill	300m	1CC	31 March 2003	Located near thePrintworks in theNorthern Quarter.
Exchange Square	300m	2CC	6 December 2015	Only stop fully on the Second City Crossing (2CC). Serves theManchester Arndale at its main entrance.
Market Street	200m	1CC	27 April 1992	Located in the central retail district and near theManchester Arndale.
New Islington		East Manchester	11 February 2013	Only Zone 1 stop on the East Manchester Line. ServesAncoats andNew Islington.
Piccadilly Gardens	200m	Piccadilly	20 July 1992	Located near the busiest bus interchange in Manchester.
St Peter's Square		1CC 2CC	27 April 1992	Located near theTown Hall andCentral Library. Serves 2CC trams at separate platforms from 1CC.
Piccadilly		Piccadilly	20 July 1992	Located in therailway station's undercroft.
Deansgate- Castlefield		1CC Altrincham	27 April 1992	ServesManchester Central and theScience and Industry Museum.
Cornbrook		Altrincham	6 December 1999	Majorinterchange stop. Also in Zone 2.

Metrolink tickets allowing travel to a Zone 1 stop also allow for travel within Zone 1.

Passengers who travel on rail services from theGreater Manchester area into one of the four railway stations of theManchester station group (Manchester Piccadilly,Manchester Oxford Road,Manchester Victoria, andDeansgate) will be issued with a ticket stating the destination asManchester Ctlz as opposed toManchester Stns. This allows visitors to use Metrolink trams within Zone 1 for free on the presentation of aManchesterCtlz rail ticket.^[2][3] The Freedom of the City scheme was introduced in 2005 by theGreater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and retained as part of the new zonal ticketing system introduced in January 2019.^[4][5]

National visitors from outside Greater Manchester withManchester Stns as the destination are not permitted free use of Metrolink, as it is a locally funded transport service by TfGM, and receives no national government subsidy.^[6]

Historically there were extensive tram lines in Manchester city centre as part of itsfirst generation tram system; however, these were all abandoned by 1949.

TheManchester Metrolink began operation in 1992. The Metrolink was designed to linkVictoria andPiccadilly stations, as well as connect the converted National Rail lines, theBury Line and theMSJ&AR Line, into a single network.^[7]

The first city-centre route, consisted of a 1.9-mile (3.1 km) street-running route from Victoria, via Market Street to G-Mex (now known asDeansgate-Castlefield) where it joined the line toAltrincham Interchange. This is now known as the First City Crossing (1CC).

Since 1992, a number of alterations to this route has taken place:

• Before 1998,Market Street tram stop had one platform that handled northbound trams (towardsBury) only, whileHigh Street stop just around the corner handled southbound trams (towardsPiccadilly orAltrincham). Following the pedestrianisation ofMarket Street, High Street was closed, and Market Street was rebuilt as a bi-directional stop.^[1]
• Shudehill Interchange was opened in 2003, between Market Street and Victoria. A bus interchange opened adjacent in 2006.^[1]
• G-Mex was renamedDeansgate-Castlefield in 2010, as the G-Mex Exhibition Centre, its namesake, was renamedManchester Central.^[8]
• Mosley Street stop was closed in 2013 to improve congestion and journey times and increase capacity.^[9]

Also a 0.4-mile (0.7 km) branch toPiccadilly station, which diverges at a three-way junction (known as the 'delta junction') nearPiccadilly Gardens.^[1] In 2013, the Piccadilly spur was extended toDroylsden andAshton-under-Lyne. The new line was called theEast Manchester Line. The first stop after Piccadilly on this new route,New Islington, was not initially included in the "City Zone" when it opened,^[10] but the zone boundary was changed in 2014 to also include New Islington.^[11]

When Metrolink fares changed from a point-to-point system to a zonal scheme in 2019, the "City Zone" was renamed as Zone 1.^[12]

The Second City Crossing (also known as 2CC)^[13] is a second Metrolink route across Manchester city centre, first proposed in 2011 as a means to improve capacity, flexibility and reliability as the rest of the system expanded.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} Funded by the Greater Manchester Transport Fund, its 0.8-mile (1.3 km) route begins at a rebuiltSt Peter's Square tram stop, and runs along Princess Street, Cross Street and Corporation Street to rejoin the original Metrolink line byVictoria station.^[15][18] The line has one stop atExchange Square. Following the submission of a planning document under theTransport and Works Act 1992, and apublic inquiry held throughout 2013,^[18][19] the Second City Crossing was granted approval on 8 October 2013 by theSecretary of State for Transport,Patrick McLoughlin,^[17][20] and signed off on 28 October 2013 by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.^[21]

Construction started in early 2014 on the newExchange Square tram stop, and the first tracks of the line were laid in late November 2014.^[13][20][21] The first part of the 2CC line opened on 6 December 2015, and only operated betweenVictoria and Exchange Square.^[22] The first test tram to run the entire route ran on 1 December 2016 and the whole line opened for public service on 26 February 2017.^[23][24]

The City Zone on opening in 1992.

The Zone in 2013,High Street andMosley Street have closed, andShudehill has opened.Market Street has been rebuilt for two-way traffic, G-Mex has been renamed asDeansgate-Castlefield, and theline to Ashton has opened.

The Zone in 2017, after the opening of the Second City Crossing.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toManchester Metrolink City Zone.

• Metrolink in the City Centre – from theLight Rail Transit Association.
• Metrolink : Routes : city centre routes – from TheTrams (outdated)

• Transport in Manchester

• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from January 2018
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Use dmy dates from November 2019
• Commons category link from Wikidata