A major fault with the overhead at Cornbrook on Saturday 12th December saw major disruption for Manchester Metrolink with the repairs taking the best part of the day to complete leading to major disruption for all Metrolink lines except for that between Bury and Piccadilly. An investigation is underway to see what the cause of the problem was with this initially unclear.
The damage meant that no trams were able to serve St Peter’s Square, Cornbrook, Deansgate-Castlefield or Trafford Bar with the various lines which usually run through the city centre having to be altered through until around 1800 when normal services were able to resume.
The disruption did mean there were various unusual destinations for trams which were running as follows:
Airport to Firswood
Altrincham to Old Trafford
Ashton-under-Lyne to Piccadilly
East Didsbury to Firswood
Eccles to MediaCityUK
Rochdale Town Centre to Exchange Square
Trafford Centre to Wharfside
The only route which was running unaffected was that from Bury to Piccadilly
Replacement buses were put on and there was ticket acceptance in place on local services buses.
During the repairs Danny Vaughan, TfGM’s Head of Metrolink, said: “I’d like to apologise to customers for the disruption today that is impacting most of the network. Engineers are on site trying to fix the damage and staff are across the network to help passengers. We’re working hard to resolve the problem and return all services as soon as possible.”