Bad day for Metrolink Take 2

Manchester Metrolink services suffered delays on Friday 8th February after two incidents caused disruption – and once again neither were directly the fault of Metrolink. In the morning a Police incident in the City Centre saw services suspended for a time and then
in the evening a power failure saw further trams unable to operate.

The morning incident saw a suspicious package discovered in the City Centre which led the Police to cordon off an area whilst they dealt with this and led to Metrolink service unable to travel through the City Centre. Metrolink initially tried to run services but after Police advice decided that services from Altrincham, Eccles, MediaCityUK and St Werburgh’s Road would terminate at Deansgate-Castlefield, trams from Bury and Shaw & Crompton terminated at Victoria with those from Droylsden at Piccadilly Station. Services were suspended for approaching two hours with the all clear not given to Metrolink until approximately 1115.

Then an Electricity North West power failure took out the power at Cornbrook bringing the lines to Altrincham, Eccles, MediaCityUK and St Werburgh’s Road to standstill. The power was only out for approximately an hour although services took a while after this to get back to normal as is the norm in cases like these.

And all this on the first full day of services to Droylsden on the East Manchester Line – a day which should have been a celebration for Metrolink but ended up with it making the news for the wrong reasons again.