There was a minor derailment at Piccadilly Gardens on Monday 26th September involving M5000 3012 which led to disruption to services through Manchester City for a little over three hours. The tram was the lead tram in a double unit which had just departed from Piccadilly Gardens when it suffered the derailment.
The derailment happened at around 0910 and a statement was released by Transport for Greater Manchester later on in the morning to say that it was likely to be most of the day before services could resume through the area. However by around 1230 the tram was rerailed, the track was checked and trams were then able to resume operating in full.
No injuries were reported and all passengers were de-trammed.
Danny Vaughan, TfGM Head of Metrolink, said: “I’d like to reassure Metrolink customers that incidents like this are extremely rare and we will work with the operator and other industry bodies as required to ensure a thorough investigation is carried out.”
Whilst the tram was rerailed no trams were able to run via the original city crossing with Bury and Altrincham services diverted via 2CC as were services on the Airport line whilst trams from Ashton were terminated at Piccadilly.
I hope it wasn’t really three YEARS !!
Gareth
There is a typo in the first para, ‘years’ should be ‘hours’
Keep up the good work, excellent website, much appreciated.