Site of the Week: Manctransit

In the last week, what with the TIF referendum announcement and all the media coverage, we’ve been just a little bit obsessed with thinking about transport at Mancunian Way HQ.

This week’s site of the week therefore has to be Manctransit.
When we discuss transport in the context of Manctransit, we mean how infrastructure of all sorts moves around us within our city. Across 14 photosets, the site presents – almost like an advent calendar – a beautiful overview of ancient infrastructure from water processing plants to fire stations, photos of old clipper cards (remember those?) to pictures of old orange GM Buses.
We know this might seem a little strange – even eccentric – of us, but given that one major path for Manchester’s future public transport has been killed off, we can’t help but think of its past. Some people talk about a de-privatisation of the bus companies as being our best option now, but photos of Rochdale and Preston bus stations remind us these were – still are, perhaps – considered the ultimate in the old GMPTE’s arsenal.
I for one also enjoyed the old corporate ID section, as will fans of how things once were. Norweb and North West Water are but distant memories that today seem as anachronistic as the Science Museum’s healthy collection of Chorley Electric Company memorabilia.
And is it just me, or do the prototype Metrolink interiors Manctransit captured look far more futuristic than what we actually have? Or are they just cleaner?