2094 days! That is how long it has been since Manchester Metrolink M5000 3027 had run in service but its long period in the “out of service” ranks is now over after it finally returned to service on Friday 7th February 2025 when it was allocated to work on the Bury to Piccadilly service.
Previous to today, 3027 had last run in service on 16th May 2019 when it was involved in a collision with a road vehicle on the Manchester Airport line close to Martinscroft tramstop at the junction with Wendon Road. Initially moved back to Trafford Depot, 3027 was moved across to Queens Road Depot (top and tailed by two other trams, showing our story of last night with a triple tram wasn’t entirely unique!) in late August/early September 2019.
And there is has been for the best part of four and a half years and as repairs were delayed it started to provide spares to keep other trams on the road and as that happened its hopes of getting back into service became further and further away.
But a change in its fortunes happened in late 2024 when it was moved into the workshops for a start to be made on returning it to action. With a tram which hadn’t been used for over five years that was obviously no mean feat and it took several weeks to iron out a few issues before it could start testing.
Its first test after the completion of repairs was after service ended on Wednesday 5th February and after a couple more tests the following day it was cleared to join the operational fleet again and that saw it allocated to service on Friday 7th February.
To give more context to how long it has been out of service, when it last ran it was before the words lockdown, pandemic, hybrid working and Covid were regular parts of our vocabulary and was also before the add-on order of 27 trams were delivered to Manchester (3121 didn’t arrive until 14th November 2020). There was also no Trafford Park line on the network! And there are many other things which have changed in that period too.
The gap in service equates to:
- 2094 days
- 5 years, 8 months and 22 days
- 68 months and 22 days
3005 is now the longest out of service tram, having last ran in February 2020.
3027 stands at Bury on its first day back in service. Its got 7 minutes until it departs for Piccadilly.
An interior view of 3027 as it waits out time at Bury. (Both Photographs by Reece Hughes, 7th February 2025)