{"id":702095,"date":"2026-07-20T19:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702095\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T19:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:49:15","slug":"free-bikes-offered-to-commuters-hit-by-metrolink-tram-disruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702095\/","title":{"rendered":"Free bikes offered to commuters hit by Metrolink tram disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Commuters in Greater Manchester who have been forced on to replacement buses during a major track overhaul have been offered up to 20 minutes of free travel on rental bikes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Altrincham, Eccles, and Trafford Centre Metrolink lines have been shut since 13 July for a \u00a3150m project to replace outdated track lines between Deansgate and Trafford Bar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lines to East Didsbury and Manchester Airport have also been affected, with passengers to the city centre facing major disruption until the scheme ends on 2 August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Danny Vaughan, of Transport for Greater Manchester, said those affected could now make use of Starling Bikes every day for up to 20 minutes, and added &#8220;why not give active travel a go?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said &#8220;there&#8217;s never a good time to close parts of the network&#8221; and admitted the track project replacement had caused &#8220;a big impact&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The pedal bikes are available to hire across the city, but have now been made available in Firswood, Chorlton and Salford Quays for 10 minutes free each way for an inbound and outbound journey, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">First introduced in 2021, they were re-branded as Starling Bank bikes in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commuters in Greater Manchester who have been forced on to replacement buses during a major track overhaul have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-702095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}