It is time once again for us to take a look at the latest performance statistics of Manchester Metrolink. This time a further two periods are under review: Period 10 – Monday 5th January to Sunday 1st February and Period 11 – Monday 2nd February to Sunday 1st March. As usual we take a look at recent service performance, details of major incidents, the LRVs themselves and the number of complaints received.
Performance
After a few periods of declining performance it is pleasing to report that there has been an increase this time around. In period 9 the performance as measured by Operated Mileage was at 96.61% but this increased to 99.56% in period 10 (the main reason for mileage lost was due to a rostering error) before having a minor fall again in period 11 to 99.29% (due to driver availability, signaling failures and 3rd party events were the main reasons here). The benchmark is 98%.
Major Incidents
The following incidents caused delays of more than 30 minutes during these periods:
5th January: Services suspended between Clayton Hall and Piccadilly from 1900 to 1935 due to a car on the tracks at Clayton Hall.
7th January: Services suspended between Clayton and Piccadilly between 1322 and 1437 due to a car on the tracks at Holt Town.
18th January: Services were suspended on the Ashton line between 0810 and 0831 due to ice on the overhead. The reason for this was a sudden drop in temperatures at 0700 from +1 to -2 with freezing fog. There were also minor delays on Rochdale line.
19th January: Services suspended between Rochdale Town Centre and Rochdale Railway Station between 0630 and 1030 due to a points failure.
23rd January: A Road Traffic Collision at Mosley Street/Princess Street lead to delays on services through St Peter’s Square between 1909 and 2048. The scene had been cleared at 1948.
27th January: A RTC between Audenshaw and Droylsden on Ashton New Road at 0830 where a car turned into a dedicated tram only section and drove into the side of a tram. Services on the inbound route were turned at Ashton West with the outbound route still fully operational. The inbound route resumed normal service from 0950.
27th January: Another RTC, this time at Nicholas Street in city centre – along Mosley Street – at 0954. The site was cleared at 1105.
29th January: Rochdale line suffered severe delays after a points failure at Monsall after a signal was passed at stop at 0750.
3rd February: Points failure at Newton Heath and Moston at 0845. Normal services resumed at 0920.
3rd February: Another points failure at Newton Heath and Moston at 1930. This time services resumed at 2150.
6th February: A RTC between a car and a tram at Exchange Quay led to services being amended to run from Ashton to Trafford Bar and MediaCityUK to Eccles between 2145 and 2358.
10th February: Collision between a car and tram on Princess Street at 1945 which led to service suspension through city centre. Car was removed at 2054 and normal service resumed at 2321.
17th February: Points failure at Rochdale saw services suspended from Newbold to Rochdale Town Centre between 0600 and 0645.
26th February: Car was driven onto the tracks at Baguley. Services ran from Roundthorn to Cornbrook only between 1810 and 1930.
27th February: A car crossing the tracks at Langworthy broke down at 0845. The car was removed at 1050. During the disruption trams ran Ashton/Piccadilly to MediaCityUK only.
LRVs
The reliability of the LRVs in period 10 was 25,157 MDBSF (mean distance between service affecting failures) with 21 failures. This then fell to 22,356 MDBSF in period 11 with 24 failures.
As we have reported previously 3013 returned to service in February 2015 after two years out of use. 3063 was out of use between 27th January and 15th February due to collision damage. 3087 also returned to service in period 10 whilst in period 11 3065 was out of service short-term (a cable warranty defect) and 3077 was also out of service short-term (collision damage).
Complaints
448 written complaints were received in period 10 (107 due to service disruption) and 598 were received in period 11 (144 due to service disruption).
Meanwhile there were nine commendations in period 10 and three in period 11.
Patronage
Estimated patronage in January was 2.5 million which was 68,000 below budget but 224,000 ahead of January 2014. In February patronage was at 2.6 million (97,000 below budget but 311,000 ahead of February 2014).
* The full report can be downloaded from the TfGM Committees website at http://tinyurl.com/n4q9a86.