Commuters urged to plan ahead and take travel advice in their stride
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Competitors, spectators, shoppers and football fans are among those being advised to plan ahead in preparation for another busy weekend of sports and events for the region.
The Manchester derby kicks things off, with Manchester City hosting Manchester United at the Etihad on Saturday (kick off 5.30pm), followed by The Courteeners at Manchester Arena (doors open at 6pm).
On Sunday, the Asics Greater Manchester Marathon takes place in the Trafford area. Arcade Fire bring the weekend of events to a close with a concert at Manchester Arena on Sunday evening (doors open at 7pm).
The size and locations of the events mean that there’ll be changes to public transport and a number of local roads will be subject to closure and bus route diversions.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is confident that they have the plans and experience in place to help customers stay on track with their journeys this weekend.
Aside from providing specific travel advice through two dedicated web pages, TfGM will be implementing a number of measures to help those travelling make their journeys as easy and as stress free as possible.
TfGM’s Events Manager, Ryan Carter, said: “Greater Manchester is well rehearsed in hosting these large-scale events, and this weekend promises to be another exciting occasion for the region.
“We have developed detailed and robust transport plans so that anyone travelling into and around the region over the weekend has all the information available to them, to help plan their journey.
“There will be extra capacity, additional staff on hand across the Metrolink network and dedicated monitoring throughout the weekend at the TfGM Control Centre.
“Of course we are expecting large numbers of customers to travel and our advice is to plan ahead and allow extra time for journeys.”