Why is it taking so long to get bikes on trams?

Dear Millers — welcome to this week’s Monday briefing. Today’s edition is the usual smorgasbord of news, culture, and local insight you’ve come to expect. We look at whether Transport for Greater Manchester is dragging its heels (maybe even its wheels) on letting bikes on trams. Plus: a violin handcrafted by Antonio Stradivari is on display in Manchester, and we ask what parts of the city’s cultural heritage would be worth UNESCO-protection. 

Thanks for your dozens of comments and tweets about our weekend read, in which Joshi reviewed The Rentier City, a new book that is deeply critical of how Manchester has developed in recent years. “This kind of great article is one of the reasons I subscribe to The Mill,” wrote Peter Cave, “Real analysis, examination of evidence, and serious debate focused on advancing understanding of a very important subject.”

The story got lots of people talking on Twitter, where some readers loved the review and others felt it should have covered more of the book’s historical analysis. Some Millers were more focused on the day-to-day reality of the city than any talk of Gini coefficients — Chris wrote under the piece: “If all that investment does not get the streets swept, never mind meeting housing need, what is the point?” The comments also feature a detailed debate about George Orwell and the pros and cons of corporate landlords — dive in if you’re a member.

It’s exactly what we want The Mill to be doing: bringing people into a discussion. Amid the sound and fury of social media we aim to be a place for thoughtful conversation about things that matter in Manchester. We’re planning a members’ event about the issues raised in this weekend’s piece, and we have another members-only story coming up that touches on similar themes.

Last week, members also received a story about a donation made to Andy Burnham’s election campaign in 2021, when he was running again to be Mayor of Greater Manchester, and a report about whether more could have been done to save Victoria Olabode, a 12-year-old from Rochdale who died after being admitted to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital with difficulty breathing.

If you’re not a member yet and you’d like to read those pieces and come to our events, please join us now using the button below. Also, if you think that having a forum for these kinds of conversations is important, subscribing as a paying Miller is the best way to help us out. We want to do journalism that provokes great discussions; every extra member helps us have more impact.

An unforgettable evening of ancient music

🎻 From today’s sponsor: Manchester Baroque are a unique institution in the city. Not only do they specialise in playing baroque music, they do it all on historical instruments to give the most authentic rendition. Next weekend, they are putting on a stirring performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion at Manchester Cathedral. The oratorio — regarded as one of the greatest pieces of classical music ever composed — will be performed on the evening of Friday 29th March to coincide with the start of Easter. Even better, it’s organised by a longtime Mill member, who has offered a special 20% discount on tickets for Millers (meaning they start at £12). You can redeem your discount and enjoy an unforgettable evening of ancient music by clicking this special link.

🌦️ This week’s weather

Milder temperatures this week, but plenty of wet weather, so hang on to your umbrellas.

Tuesday 🌧️ Cloudy with outbreaks of heavy rain. Max 12°C.

Wednesday 🌦️ Breezy with mostly cloudy skies and occasional light rain. Max 14°C.

Thursday 🌦️ Mild with bright spells and a few showers. Breezy. Max 15°C.

Friday 🌦️ Breezy with a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers. Max 14°C.

Weekend 🌦️ Remaining milder than average with changeable weather conditions.

You can find the latest forecast at Manchester Weather on Facebook — daily forecasts are published at 6.15am.

The big story: Want to take your bike on the tram? You’ll need an invite and a babysitter…

Top line: It’s long been a frustration for GM’s cyclists that you can’t take bikes on the Metrolink. But that could be about to change, with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) trialling allowing bikes, mobility scooters and other mobility aids on its trams. 

But before you board, it’s not that simple…

• Only those recruited by TfGM during the trial period can give it a go. And even if you manage to get your hands on one of the city’s hottest tickets right now…

• …you’ll need a minder. A member of staff from Keolis Amey (who run the trams) will be there to make sure you don’t get your wheel caught in the door or otherwise embarrass yourself. Who knows we might respond to their newfound freedom?

Context: Currently, only foldable bikes in bags have been allowed on Metrolink. The trial was approved by the Bee Network Committee in January, and will only run during off-peak services (anytime after 9:30).

Easy win: The trial is part of GM Active Travel Commissioner Dame Sarah Storey’s refreshed active travel plan, but local campaigners see the trial as an easy win. “We’ve tried not to make bikes on trams a big thing,” says Harry Gray, a campaigner for WalkRideGM. “There is more you can do in active travel that has more of a meaningful impact”.

Why has it taken so long to get here? That’s arguably the bigger question. This is the first time in 32 years of the network that this has even been trialled, let alone allowed.

• That’s despite other systems such Edinburgh Trams, or the DLR in London (also operated by Keolis) having allowed bikes for some time with no issues.

Part of the reason could be the pressing financial need to maximise passenger numbers. If bikes take up space that could otherwise be taken by passengers that might be a problem — as we reported back in late 2022, TfGM has taken out big loans against future ticket revenue.

And going for a trial first gives a possible way out. Gray believes that trialling, rather than simply allowing, bikes may be acting as a way to placate anti-cyclist members at TfGM: “The trial, in a way, is a tick box exercise to go through the hoops and satisfy to appease certain factions at Metrolink,” he says.

Bottom line: The results of the trial, which will run for this month and possibly into April, will contribute to a report that will go to committee in the summer, and they will make recommendations. We humbly suggest that — seeing bikes are already allowed on similar services, and considering GM’s commitment to making active travel work — it all feels a bit drawn out.

The big picture

A photo from Rescued Time, an exhibition by the Manchester-based portrait photographer David Gleave, who has collated his favourite photos over the last decade. “I see myself not as a photographer but as a historian with a camera,” David told The Photography Network. It’s showing upstairs in Manchester Central Library until 31st March.

Your Mill briefing

🕵️‍♀️ We're hearing some intriguing rumours about an incoming occupier at the former Central Retail Park on Great Ancoats Street. It's been confirmed that the Government Property Agency has taken space at the building, but whether it's for mid-level civil servants or some slightly more interesting roles is a topic of speculation. As ever, if you know anything, please get in touch...

💸 Bolton Council has named Mudasir Dean, the Tory councillor for Bradshaw ward, as one of two councillors who hadn’t been paying their council tax. Dean said the missed council tax (now paid) was due to health issues and a significant loss of income. “Many people in our town and country fall on hard times and elected members are just like the people they represent,” Dean said. He’s not the only one not paying council tax — later this week we’re publishing a story about a man who has not only decided to stop paying it, but claims to be getting it refunded too. Keep an eye out for that.

🎻 A new collection of rare musical instruments, some dating back to the fifteenth century, has been opened up to the public at the Royal Northern College of Music. It includes a 1685 Stradivari violin, a virginal — described as the “great-grandfather to the piano” — from the fifteenth century, an African gunibri (a kind of lute) and a shred of cloth thought to have once been part of Beethoven’s shroud. It’s only open for this month, with restricted visiting hours open only to small groups.

🍄 In Ashton-Under-Lyne, one woman’s home has started sprouting mushrooms, growing from pre-existing patches of mould. Stacie Blackwell said she is worried for the health of her sons, one of whom had to sleep elsewhere while preparing for his GCSEs because of the mould in his bedroom. The property is operated by Jigsaw Homes, a housing association that says it is now working to resolve the issue. Late last year, we reported on tenants of another housing association, Riverside, who had such bad mould that, in one case, a child was hospitalised. 

🗞️ We were reading this piece in the New Yorker about UNESCO setting its sights on a new form of heritage — our cultural practices. Usually, the organisation focuses on preserving buildings of note or ancient sites of human importance. But now, it wants to preserve the more intangible cultural practices that are passed down through generations. Examples include: Italian opera singing, Peruvian ceviche and Bangladeshi Rickshaw painting. It got us thinking, are there any Mancunian cultural practices worth protecting? Meet us in the comments. 

Home of the week

This four bedroom converted barn is on the peaceful outskirts of Bury and dates back to 1772. It’s on the market for £550,000.

Our favourite reads

‘Unbelievably relevant’: what can the explosive 1958 play A Taste of Honey tell us today? — The Guardian

In 1959, Shelagh Delaney issued a damning judgement about Salford: “[it’s] like a terrible drug you really perhaps would want to get away from but you can’t.” Now that Salford is filled with “gleaming high rises” and media executives, the Guardian’s Helen Pidd asks what Delaney’s 1958 play A Taste of Honey can tell us about working-class life today.

A Love Song to His Roots — The New York Times

Patrick Joyce, history professor at the University of Manchester, writes about being a “relict of what we have lost”: the son of a poor peasant from County Mayo who worked on a little farm on the hillside. His book explores themes of generational change and survival, and the task of a peasant attempting to “hand on to the child the land the peasant has inherited, making one’s own existence a kind of interlude between past and future.”

Battle cry of the Scouse dads — The New Statesman

Jonny Ball, associate editor of The New Statesman, writes that Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram’s part-memoir part-manifesto is a strange book, “written in the pally tone of a footballer’s tell-all autobiography, which is odd for something that will mostly be read by policy wonks”. But does it give us answers about how to solve Britain’s glaring North-South divide? To read Mill staff writer Jack Walton’s take on Head North by Burnham and Rotheram, click here.

Our to do list

Tuesday

🎭 A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller’s moving story of immigrants settling in gloomy, working-class New York, is showing at the Player’s Theatre in Cheadle Hulme. Tickets here.

🇮🇪 A collective of Irish-Mancunian artists have marked St Patrick’s Day with a new art trail. The Irish Nation takes you on a walk from Hallé St Peter’s in Ancoats all the way through the Northern Quarter, the city centre, Salford and Oxford Road. More info here.

Wednesday

🐸 Did you know that frogs and salamanders can glow in the dark? Head to Manchester Museum after hours for a tour through the museum’s vivarium, where you can see the amphibians in all their fluorescent glory. It’s free.

🐕 Art historian Dr Kate Nichols will be discussing how Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century animal paintings can help us understand history, empire and environmental change, book a place here.

Thursday 

📚 Journalist Grace Blakeley will be discussing her new book VULTURE CAPITALISM, a study of the failures of late-stage capitalism and free-market economics, at Manchester Central Library. Tickets here.

🧟 The Lowry presents Frankenstein, a new interpretation of Mary Shelley’s gothic thriller that begins with a couple confronting their fears about parenthood. Tickets here.