East Didsbury tram stop is on the old Midland Railway line that ran from the Manchester Central via Didsbury, Heaton Mersey and Cheadle Heath onto the Peak District and London St Pancras. It was opened in 1880. There was no stop at East Didsbury until the modern day Metrolink tram stop. The line was closed completely in 1969.
In 1982, the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive concluded that an overground metropolitan light rail system (Metrolink) was the most economical solution to improving Greater Manchester's public transport network.
Phase 1 of Metrolink (1992) from Bury to Altrincham route via the city centre, with a spur to Manchester Piccadilly station was created by converting existing heavy railway lines to light rail operation and laying on-street tracks across Manchester city centre to unite the lines under one integrated system.
Phase 2 an extension from Cornbrook to Eccles was officially opened on 9 January 2001.
Phase 3a extended the line to MediaCityUK and opened on 20 September 2010. The East Manchester Metrolink extension opened to Droylsden on 11th February 2013 and to Ashton-under-Lyne on 9th October 2013. On 28 February 2013 the line was opened to Rochdale station and is to be extended to Rochdale Town Centre. On 23 May 2013 the link to East Didsbury was opened.
Phase 3: The 14.5km opened early on Monday 3 November. A second city crossing from Deansgate to Victoria Station opened on 26th February 2017.
(Any errors are all my own, please e-mail for corrections)
Congratulations to Walker-Clan on FTF. Think they got there before I'd got notification!
For more information see: http://www.metrolink.co.uk
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/heaton_mersey/index.shtml
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/d/didsbury/index.shtml