When the section of Western Road immediately in front of Marks and Spencer was made buses, taxis and cycles only, one of the strongest supporters of the change was the manager of M&S.
But look at the statistics. In 2014, 25 million passenger journeys were made by train in Greater Manchester. Buses carried 225 million passengers. And trams took 30 million.
Any local transport system is going to depend very heavily on buses. Even if the trams are good.