Another car drives onto the tracks on East Manchester line

An elderly woman has become the latest person to manage to drive their car onto the tram tracks at Holt Town causing delays to Manchester Metrolink services to and from Ashton-under-Lyne. The incident happened on Sunday 19th January at approximately 1420 with services being suspended for over an hour.

It is believed that the woman took a wrong turn at Ashton New Road onto the tram tracks and like previous incidents just carried on her merry way until the car came to a halt, stuck on the tram tracks unable to move until assistance had to be called to remove the vehicle – a V6 Jaguar for those of you interested in that sort of thing. The woman was not hurt in the incident but it did cause tram services to be suspended for around an hour.

The incident has led to local residents and businesses calling on Transport for Greater Manchester to improve the signage at the location – which has seen previous incidents of motorists not realising they are driving along a tram only section. For their part TfGM have said that the signage is adequate for the majority of motorists and meets all standards required but an investigation will be held to see whether it could be improved in the future.

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2 Responses to Another car drives onto the tracks on East Manchester line

  1. James Robinson says:

    I hope she is banned from driving, not for the wrong turning but for gaily continuing along the tram tracks, surely she should have noticed also charge her for the delays !

    • Colin Smith says:

      Couldn’t agree more James. For anyone unfamiliar with this site, the surface from Ashton New Road to just beyond the tram stop is grooved tram rail embedded bin concrete. The continuation of the track is in plain rail laid directly onto a concrete base but that base is at a level, approximately, six inches lower than the stretch through the tram stop. The only thing I can say is she must either have been asleep, there would have been a sensation as she changed onto the lowered surface, or just plain daft. Worse still, in my opinion, is the fact that she should have seen what she had done. It was broad daylight. So there really was no excuse.

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