Saturday 25th November was a night to forget for Manchester Metrolink and anyone who was trying to travel on the system after several issues contributed to cause services to be suspended and delayed with the disruption happening for over three hours. Starting at around 1900 a failed tram and a points failure contributed to the problems which were compounded by a communications failure which meant platform information displays were incorrect.
The first reports of problems occurred at around 1900 when a double tram failed at Piccadilly Gardens. Meanwhile at Bury there was a points failure which also caused problems. For a time the Eccles line was suspended whilst services did continue on other lines but with delays and some alterations.
Danny Vaughan, Head of Metrolink at TfGM, released a statement: “First off, I’d like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience to their journey and thank everyone for their patience. I do appreciate just how frustrating it is when services are disrupted and we are doing everything in our power to get a full service back up and running as quickly as possible. The failure of the double tram was compounded by an unrelated points failure on the Bury line and we were temporarily unable to communicate with our passengers via our electronic information signs and public address systems at stops. We deployed more staff across the tram network immediately to offer advice and support to customers and all our information channels are being updated.”