Manchester Metrolink services through the city centre were severely delayed at the start of service on Tuesday 25th November following a stabbing the previous night at Piccadilly Gardens. Greater Manchester Police had cordoned off a large area in the vicinity of the tram tracks whilst they undertook forensic investigations into the incident which meant that no trams were able to run between Piccadilly Station and Piccadilly Gardens.
Whilst the investigations were undertaken all services from Altrincham ran through to Bury whilst services from Eccles and MediaCityUK ran at a reduced frequency and were terminated at Cornbrook. Trams from Ashton-under-Lyne ran only as far as Piccadilly. Direct services continued to run between Bury and Altrincham, Bury-Abraham Moss, Rochdale-East Didsbury and Cornbrook-Airport although reduced services were operating on all lines at times.
It wasn’t until 1030 that the Police had cleared Piccadilly Gardens and normal Metrolink services could resume.
Even though it caused major disruption for metrolink the following morning,there was one small blessing.Due to the incident six vehicles were trapped between Picc gardens and Picc station.So at least metrolink could run a Ashton-Picc service.One of the vehicles which became trapped was 3083 which at the time was on a test run testing a new flange lube system.