Imagine a dedicated tram service running on rails, linking Bradford to Halifax in the west, Leeds in the east, Huddersfield in the south and Skipton in the north.

Manchester’s three Metrolink routes connect the city centre with Eccles, Altrincham and Bury, taking in Old Trafford, Mediacity and Salford Quays – among the biggest, and possibly the best, urban regeneration schemes in the country.

The trams, which have been operating since 1992, travel at between 30 and 50mph. In a couple of years’ time, the system will be bigger, enabling day-trippers to get to see a good deal of the city and its suburbs without having to drive, cycle or hike.

The train from Leeds took less than an hour to reach busy Piccadilly, where Lesley and I bought two day-saver Metrolink tickets.

We first went to Old Trafford, ostensibly to buy a couple of gifts for Manchester United fans; in reality the visit enabled me to fantasise about living in one of the tidier redbrick houses on Warwick Road, the wide, pleasant thoroughfare linking the two magnificent Old Traffords – of Lancashire County Cricket Club and Manchester United FC.

In exchange for £20, you can have a guided tour of United’s ground, including a meal in the Red Devil cafe. We didn’t join the camera-toting sightseers from Northern Europe, Scandanavia, Ireland, the United States and the Far East, although we did spend just short of £20 on two items from the club’s crowded Megastore.

Since my last visit a few years ago, the ground’s sign-posting appears to have greatly improved. Also, on the walls under the stand where the directors’ entrance is located, a graphic history of the club has been put up.

Pausing only to get a quick snap of the statues of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton outside, and to read the message on a bunch of flowers below the Munich memorial, we went to Altrincham.

There we had lunch, bought some books at a remaindered book store, looked round a local market and had coffee in Caffe Nero.

Metrolink trams come and go every 12 minutes, so we didn’t have long to wait at Altrincham’s bus-train-tram interchange for a tram to Cornbrook, where we switched to the Eccles route for Mediacity and the Salford Quays.

Fans of Henning Mankel’s detective series Wallander or the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium crime trilogy might see something Swedish in the glass, steel, water and light modernity of what used to be Manchester docks.

Yet L S Lowry’s paintings of Lancashire milltowns and Scottish ports – industrial blues, browns, greys, smoggy grey, white and black – complement the huge arts complex where you can see them in exchange for a few pounds’ donation.

Opposite the Mediacity studios, where five BBC departments are being transferred from London, the Lowry Centre manages to be both modern and homely, from the galleries containing Lowry’s paintings and drawings, to the well-appointed toilets.

We bought a Lowry print for £20 which, the following afternoon, necessitated a rapid car trip to Ikea at Birstall to obtain a suitable frame.

To properly explore the area, which includes the vast metal canopy containing the Imperial War Museum (North), requires a day or more. We were only passing through the windy glass, steel and stone thoroughfares, but were impressed enough to wonder what living in one of the £500-plus-a-month apartments might be like – especially in winter.

The architecture of Salford Quays contrasts with the more familiar smoky-red brick of municipal Manchester, which reminds me of cotton mills, railways, the ship canal, Frederick Engels, Mrs Gaskell, Chartism, the Halle Orchestra, Granada TV studios, Coronation Street, the Busby Babes, the Hollies, Oasis and Elbow.

On the way back to Piccadilly we went into the Manchester Art Gallery, which has a collection of Pre-Raphaelite pictures.

As I dislike the fruit-salad mawkishness of Holman Hunt, Burne Jones and company, I found myself comparing unfavourably their obsession with death, purity and England’s supposedly rosy pre-industrial past with L S Lowry’s smoke-blackened landscapes of chimneys, factories and viaducts.

Ten hours or so after leaving Shipley we returned to Piccadilly for a train home, weary but pleased with our day out.

INFORMATION:

* There are trains from Bradford Interchange to Manchester Victoria, which stop at all the stations along the route.

* Jim went from Shipley via Leeds to Manchester Piccadilly, with far fewer stops between, for less than £13 open day return, thanks to a Senior National Rail Card.

* A Day Saver Metrolink ticket for £4.20 will get you around Manchester. A £7 ticket enables you to travel on bus, tram and train.