GREATER Manchester’s popular Metrolink tram network is to get a French connection.
It is to be run by RATP Dev UK, a subsidiary of RATP, the state-owned transport company that operates the Paris Metro.
Stagecoach, which took over Metrolink from Serco four years ago, has sold out before completing a 10-year contract to run and maintain the network until 2017.
Vehicles, platforms and track will continue to be owned by Transport for Greater Manchester.
It is easy to be alarmed by another foreign incursion in to British life, but maybe the new operators have expertise that can be used to improve a service that carries 20 million passengers a year.
They could start by devising a more rapid system at the Old Trafford stop for the dispersal of fans waiting to get home after attending matches at Manchester United or the Lancashire cricket ground.
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