Queen’s funeral bank holiday travel in Manchester: Metrolink trams, buses and train timetable changes

Transport for Greater Manchester (TFGM) has confirmed some changes to public transport on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

The funeral service will take place at Westminster Abbey in London on Monday 19 September and the day has been declared a bank holiday.

Here’s how public transport in Greater Manchester will be affected by the bank holiay.

Metrolink trams

Trams will swap to a Sunday timetable on Monday 19 September.

That means services will run from 7am until midnight, with a 12-minute frequency across all lines. The Metrolink service will be suspended in Exchange Square for the state funeral as big screens there will be showing the TV coverage.

Metrolink services will pause at 11.50am for the nationally observed two-minute silence, and resume shortly after the silence is complete.

You can check out first and last tram times for your route at TFGM here.

Buses in Greater Manchester

Bus operators including First Manchester and Stagecoach Manchester have confirmed they will also run on a Sunday timetable on Monday 19 September.

First Bus said: “Customers are also advised that drivers and other support staff will observe any silences that form part of the ceremony and, where safe to do so, will pull over to the side of the road and stop the bus until the mark of respect is completed.”

You can check first and last bus times with individual operators or see the TFGM journey planner here.

Trains to London from Manchester and local rail travel

As Monday is a bank holiday, peak restrictions will not apply on rail services, meaning you can use off-peak tickets all day, and rail services are expected to run on a standard Monday timetable.

However, for those wanting to catch trains to London from Manchester, operator Avanti has yet to confirm its weekend timetables and release tickets at time of writing, and West Coast mainline services were recently cut back in frequency owing to driver shortages.

Avanti added: “We recognise that many of our customers will make their way to London and other destinations around the country to pay their respects at Royal residences. This could lead to exceptionally busy services and station closures over the mourning period as well as on the day of the funeral.

“We expect services to be exceptionally busy during this time, so we ask people to check before they travel and leave as much time as possible for their journey.”

You can sign up to get notifications of when tickets go on sale at Avanti’s website here.

Manchester Airport on Bank Holiday weekend

Manchester Airports Group this week tweeted that they expect this weekend to be busy with people travelling around the UK for the bank holiday and have advised passengers to allow plenty of time to get through their airports. See our full guide to getting through the airport more smoothly plus latest waiting times here.