The latest statistics of Manchester Metrolink have been released giving details on the performance of the service, any major incidents, trams out of service and the number of complaints received. The latest document concentrates on periods 8 and 9 (Monday 11th November 2013 to Sunday 5th January 2014) and a summary of this is provided below.
Performance
Performance as measured by Operated Mileage decreased from 98.82% in period 7 to 98.29% in period 8 but then increased to 98.61% in period 9. Interestingly the report also states that they expect this to increase further in the coming periods.
Major Incidents
These are incidents which caused delays of more than 30 minutes and impacted on performance.
13th November: A M5000 was involved in a collision with a pedestrian on Aytoun Street at 1336. The gentleman was taken to hospital at 1414 allowing services to resume.
14th November: A double M5000 failed outside Bury Interchange at 1825 causing the service to be suspended between Bury and Whitefield. The failed vehicles were able to be moved into the platform at 1925 enabling services to resume.
19th November: A M5000 failed at Derker due to ice on the overhead at 0648. The tram was coupled to another vehicle at 0752 and returned to depot.
20th November: A M5000 collided with a mobility scooter at Ashton West at 1347. No injuries were reported after the emergency services attended the scene allowing services to fully resume at 1424.
22nd November: A car was driven onto the track at Holt Town at 1504. Services were only able to resume after the car was removed and the track checked at 1624.
26th November: A car was driven onto the track at Holt Town at 2017. Services were only able to resume after the car was removed and the track checked at 2053.
8th December: A car was driven onto the tracks at Ashton Moss at 2005. The car was removed from the track at 2215 but a M5000 in the vicinity was unable to raise its pantograph and services were unable to resume until it was moved at 2304.
18th December: A T68 failed at Piccadilly Station at 1102. Services resumed at 1135 once the tram was moved.
28th December: The front panel of a M5000 became loose and came into contact with the platform at Whitefield at 1355. After technicians attended and adjusted the panel services resumed at 1435.
Trams
3013 remained out of service through all periods. Repair work is continuing and it is estimated it will be completed by February 2014 (the last report said January!).
Complaints
620 complaints were received in period 8 (46% of which were for service disruption) and 257 complaints were received in period 9 (38% for service disruption).
There were 15 commendations in period 8 and 14 in period 9.
Patronage
Patronage in December was an estimated 2.7 million journeys. This was 34,000 above budget and 385,000 ahead of December 2012.
* The full report can be downloaded from the TfGM Committees website at http://tinyurl.com/q2wlt3r.
I sent a complaint to Metrolink on 21st December about service disruption and mixed messages on the platform. I received an automatic reply with the promise of a proper response later. The proper response never arrived, does this mean they have included the figures above?
By the way on the day the Metrolink App’ showed that a good service was running to Media City but the platform posters said no trains were running to Media City due to an ‘event’. Whilst I waited at the platform a Media City tram arrived but I needed to go to Eccles for which I had to wait another 40 minutes! Eccles was running a ‘good service’ at the time too apparently!
I spent 11 days working at the Velodrome and bought a weekly ticket to get back to my hotel in Manchester. This may be seen as a waste of money as most days the service was disrupted. On one day I arrived at the stop to see Bury Delayed. After 12 minutes the dot matrix changed to Bury 29 min’s. I crossed the road and caught a bus that was also running late.I arrived back at my hotel 2 mins before the tram was due at the Velo park stop. Many people working at the site were also put out by the bad service.
Did we complain? No I do not think it would be worth it just to get a stock reply.
Not only is the service poor the timetables need to be sorted out. We were told the last tram into Piccadilly left at 1206 am but the time tables at the stop inferred that there was two later trams but even the staff could not confirm this.
The favorite route seemed to be “Sorry not in Service”