Allowing bicycles on board Metrolink trams would 'cause major problems', a committee of councillors was told as transport bosses revealed plans to use a quiet siding as an off-network testing site for a 'soft trial'.
One councillor said passengers already struggled to get on packed peak-time trams and stressed people with prams, electric scooters, different-sized mobility scooters and suitcases already use the network together with, now, dogs.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), meanwhile, revealed it was looking at using volunteers with bikes to conduct a 'mock up' test off the live tram network, possibly at Crumpsall.
The Manchester Evening News revealed last week a pilot scheme allowing bicycles on board Metrolink trams across Greater Manchester is now being drawn up. The city region's new active travel commissioner, former Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey, revealed she's working with transport bosses and the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to devise a trial.
Dame Sarah said she wants to deliver a pilot scheme for 'trialling the carriage of bikes and non-standard cycles on trams', like tricycles, tandems and hand cycles, together with TfGM and the Transport Commissioner. Currently, Metrolink regulations state cyclists can only take folding bikes on board trams if they are fully folded and covered. No other types of bike are allowed.
The issue was debated at a meeting of Greater Manchester's Transport Committee. Councillor Phil Burke, who represents the West Middleton ward on Rochdale council for Labour, called for the plans to be 'squashed' and for an urgent meeting to be held with Mr Burnham.
He said prams, electric scooters, different-sized mobility scooters, dogs and people with suitcases already use the network, adding: "Constituents in Rochdale feel on a weekly basis they struggle to get on packed trams on peak times, especially on weekends.
"It seems like the decision to allow bikes on trams has already been made without listening to the people across the different boroughs about their concerns. People, once they get the idea that they can take bikes on trams, they will be taking bikes on trams no matter what time of day and night it is.
"It will cause major problems. I would ask you to rethink allowing bikes on trams."
He added that a bike would 'probably take up two-and-a-half people's spaces' on a tram. "If you have got a wheelchair or other people with other things on a tram, it becomes a health and safety issue. What will we be allowing next - wheelbarrows to come on trams next for a trial period for the gardeners?" coun Burke said. "It really does need looking at."
Trafford Labour councillor Aidan Williams, however, said: "I would like to think that we are capable of exploring sensitively whether or not there is capacity for us to accommodate bikes on trams. I really would like to think that we can explore bikes on trams and whether there is capacity to provide that offer."
Tameside Conservative councillor Doreen Dickinson said new trams can't be bought and 'the trams we have got are what we have got'. She said: "Its a fact that on trams there are very little manoeuvring rooms. We need to look at the whole picture."
Mayor Mr Burnham, who vociferously champions cycling and public transport, made a re-election manifesto pledge to hold pilot schemes for both bikes on trams and dogs - the latter of which was held successfully last year.
TfGM confirmed at the meeting it was 'looking at and undertaking a study' around allowing bikes on trams, but said a report drawn up more than a decade ago said it was unsafe unless major changes were made.
Interim chief operating officer Alex Cropper said: "The backdrop is, we have got a previous report and study that we did in 2010-11 when we bought a lot of the trams that effectively said it wasn't safe unless we made significant changes to either the trams or the associated infrastructure, because it is accessing some of the stops as well.
"We are a very accessible network, but we are not fully accessible, so we have got to address that. It's pointless without doing the whole picture. That bit of work is ongoing and we will look to bring that back and inform people around what the outcomes are.
"We are also looking to do a volunteer soft trial, so not actually out live on the transport network but using one of the sidings such as Crumpsall, or somewhere like that, where we can actually do a mock-up." The safety of all passengers, including people with bikes, would be fully assessed, he added.
"We are committed to this year to look at developing a pilot to try and see how that can work effectively. Whether that is peak time or off peak time, that work is still being looked at."
Dame Sarah, from Eccles, Salford, says in a newly-published document setting out a refreshed 'travel strategy' for Greater Manchester: "I am already working with the Mayor, Transport Commissioner and TfGM to deliver a pilot scheme to allow cycles on the Metrolink system and have instigated a review into the current policies in place for those with mobility aids on trams."
TfGM said a timescale and format for the pilot scheme haven't been set. A spokesperson said: "A review into the safety and practicalities of a pilot carrying bikes and adapt bikes on Metrolink will be carried out this year."
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