There were further major delays on Manchester Metrolink on Monday 9th May after an attempted cable theft at Cornbrook. It was reported that a group of vandals were attempting to steal the copper cables on Cornbrook Viaduct at around 0300 but were disturbed by a security patrol but not before they had caused a significant amount of damage. One of the group stealing the copper is said to have fallen off the viaduct suffering a fractured skull, pelvis and right leg.
Because of the damage caused to the copper wires at Cornbrook the day started off with a severely curtailed Metrolink network in operation. No trams were able to travel to Altrincham, Eccles or MediaCityUK until shortly before 0930 but trams were still able to run at 12 minute intervals between St Werburgh’s Road and Victoria and Bury and Piccadilly. Engineers were quickly on the scene and shortly after the early morning rush hour a limited service was able to operate on the affected lines, this saw all trams on the
Eccles route going via MediaCityUK and Bury-Altrincham trams were running via Piccadilly Station. It was not until approximately 1530 that a near normal service was back in service although the MediaCityUK spur was still being served by Eccles trams rather than the dedicated shuttle service.
An unfortunate by-product of the attempted cable theft was that no announcements could be made at Metrolink stops to inform people what was happening.
Philip Purdy, TfGM’s Metrolink Director, commented: “I’m really sorry to any of our passengers affected by this today and I’d like to thank them for their patience while we dealt with it. I know it must have been a very frustrating start to the day for them and we’re doing our best to address this for their journey home. The people who carry out this type of crime clearly have no thought for others – or indeed their own personal safety.
Trackside is a dangerous environment for anyone other than properly trained professionals. We lost the public address system too so we put extra staff out on the stops affected as soon as we could to keep passengers informed, as well as updates on the Metrolink website and Twitter. This has been an incredibly frustrating episode and we will be working closely with Greater Manchester Police to hold the individuals responsible to account and, through Operation Alloy, to look at what more can be done to tackle the widespread problem of cable theft.”
This is not the first time – and unfortunately probably won’t be the last – that vandals have attempted to steal the cable from Cornbrook with major delays also experienced in 2009 and 2010. And it’s not just Metrolink who have been hit by these thefts with even the heritage sector targeted in recent years as both the Black Country Living Museum and the
Heaton Park Tramway suffering.