Yes, and? Is that all you can counter my arguments with? Like
@Mcr Warrior said, the trams are crush loaded on match days, you can't expect Metrolink to take all the strain, it just isn't viable. If United want to build a fan zone at Old Trafford, you could be looking at almost 90k people trying to use the trams at the same time.
Calm down dear. I asked that question purely to establish where you’re coming from with respect to your arguments.
What you’re asking for is a train service on a match day that might consist of a 323 running to Old Trafford from the Castlefield corridor, but where is the capacity coming from to enable that and how many services before and after a match are you talking about? 1 or 2 trains? 3 at the very push?
A 323 has a capacity of roughly 275 seats plus standing (let’s say 100 standing), and let’s assume it’s a double 323. That means roughly 750 fans could use the shuttle on a given service, which equates to roughly 1% of the stadium capacity. If you managed to get 3 services, that’s 2,250 people.
A double M5000 tram has capacity of circa 400 people, of which from the city centre there are currently 30 services towards Old Trafford in the hour before kick off (I’m not counting the Trafford Centre service from Cornbrook as you have to board another tram to connect to it). Yet this can rise to 40 trams once the Media City services are fully reinstated and the Trafford Centre line runs all the way through the city centre. However based on 30 trams (assuming half are double and half are single), it means at least 9,000 people can get to the ground from the city centre in the hour before kick-off, using a network that has far better coverage of the city centre and surrounding boroughs than the Northern shuttle. That could be 12,000 when all lines are reinstated and if the network ran to maximum capacity (45 tph and all double trams), you could have at least 18,000 people transported in the hour before kick-off. Then you have the fact that fans will be coming in from the other direction too.
Even for away fans who might not know the area, for those that arrive at Piccadilly, descending on to the Piccadilly metrolink stop is just as easy as making your way back out to P14. Some might fancy a drink in town before hand, meaning that the tram lines are more suited to getting you on to Old Trafford.
So, given that Castlefield is at capacity, eating up a path for a shuttle service is not exactly the best use of resource, when we know that Metrolink has capacity to run an additional 10 trams each hour.