That's all very good to hear. For a town with such a massive train station slap bang in the middle and another twenty or so in its suburbs, the connections actually in and out of Stockport from nearby are curiously lacking. For that reason the town doesn't really exist in the consciousness of the many thousands of people living just round the corner in Charlton, Didsbury etc...and so the town misses out on any share of those people's disproportionately large amounts of disposable leisure income. Similarly I suspect many people in the suburb of Marple don't really use their own town centre. The Metro can change that in one fell swoop.
That's what proper public transport links do- make and change the maps in people's heads. No coincidence that I started coming to County as a Newcastle fan with no connection to the club or town for example, before we ever lived here- it was because I lived in Levenshulme and it was a hop on the train.