For a few weeks during August and September it was all change at Victoria because of a fault with the points just outside the station. This meant that Manchester Airport trams were having to run onto 2CC and those for East Didsbury and Rochdale were running on 1CC. One of the by-products of this is that for a time it was possible to see parallel departures into the city from Victoria, as seen in the below video from Philip Gay.
Of course, with the standard service pattern (Airport services running onto 1CC and going from the centre platform) it wasn’t possible for two trams to leave the stop at the same time as there would be a conflicting movement (either the East Didsbury tram would have to cross over to access 2CC or a tram would be heading onto 1CC, as would the Airport tram) but for this period it was possible to see this unique move, It does beg the question are there are other locations around the world where it is possible to see parallel departures like this? Does anyone know?
A bepsoke part was required to fix this problem and this was put into place over the weekend of 7th and 8th September meaning standard services resumed from the start of service on Monday 9th September. This same weekend saw other work in connection with the Trafford Park line and did mean Metrolink made the headlines for the wrong reasons as it affected services to Old Trafford for the Ashes Test Match. In response TfGM said they had no choice as it didn’t matter which weekend they chose as there is always a high profile event taking place.
Whilst not strictly conforming to the definition of parallel departures from a stop there is another location in Manchester where parallel movements from traffic lights are possible. This is the 2 routes from Lower Mosley Street into St Peters Square on 1CC and 2CC.