Metrolink 1 Fireworks 0

Posted on Saturday 3 January 2015 by Gareth Prior

As the clock struck midnight revellers across the UK celebrated the start of a new year with fireworks going off all around, except that is in Manchester where the new year fireworks did not go off until 0004! And the reason for the delay in the fireworks? Manchester Metrolink! A Metrolink LRV was in the “danger zone” at Piccadilly Gardens at midnight and it was decided it would be unsafe to let the fireworks go off whilst it was there. Needless to say this delay seems to have been another reason for people to have a go at Metrolink – it may be a new year but some things never change!

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7 Responses to Metrolink 1 Fireworks 0

  1. tram man says:
    Sunday 4 January 2015 at 13:31

    It seems as though there was a lack of communication between the three parties involved.TFGM had agreed with the council to run trams through Piccadilly gardens right up until the last tram depatures.But the people in charge of the fireworks decided that the trams in the platform at Picc gardens were in the fall out zone.But of course Metrolink gets it in the neck again,they get no thanks for running services well into the early hours when the busses had stopped running at 6pm.

  2. roger woodhead says:
    Sunday 4 January 2015 at 20:15

    I find it difficult to comprehend how a safety conscious organization can ignore the presence right next to the event of a rather large tram stop and bus terminus.!!!!

  3. tram man says:
    Monday 5 January 2015 at 17:35

    Roger,
    I am with you on this one.They must have realised when they set up the firework display that right next door was a very busy tram station.Even if there wasn’t a tram actually in the platform,it would have been full of people waiting for a tram.If it was considered dangerous then the area should have been cordoned off.

  4. KenW says:
    Monday 5 January 2015 at 18:47

    it is quite clear that the city council had no crowd control measures in place to prevent the tram route becoming obstructed. The tram was delayed because of revellers milling about on the track. As tram man says the city council were quite happy for Metrolink to bring revellers in for the celebrations, otherwise there would probably have been few people there as buses and trains had stopped running several hours earlier, and after coun. Karney’s outburst it would serve the council right if Metrolink also pull the plug in future.

  5. John West says:
    Wednesday 7 January 2015 at 07:25

    A contact of mine is a driver for Metrolink. He told me that the council had agreed to ensure the tracks remained clear of people. They didnt! Apparently TfGM are absolutely seething with the Karney and chums as they have been made out to be the culprits! Rumours on the depot are that there will be no trams after midnight this year, regardless of what the council do with the event!

    • Ken Walker says:
      Wednesday 7 January 2015 at 13:29

      I’m surprised anybody takes any notice of Karney. Anybody in Manchester will know a few years ago he reckoned that the blue light that had been installed on the roof of Harpurhey swimming baths in his constituency made the building on a par with the Eiffel tower, and that the. Eyesore that is Rochdale Road could be made to look like a Parisian boulevard! His behaviour on New Years Eve shows he has not got any better. No consideration for passengers waiting further down the line, or the fact that the tram driver might have been at the end of a long shift and running out of hours, not to mention that he/she might have been wanting to get home to celebrate new year with his/her family! At the end of the day the tram delayed the FIREWORK DISPLAY, not the start of the new year or the countdown to it. Big deal. I suspect there will be no trams on New Year eve after about 8pm in future, due to the council’s incompetence, but it will be the public that suffers as usual. And shame on the media for just mindlessly presenting the story ‘as is’,as if it constituted a major incident, with the usual absence of commonsense. TfGM and Metrolink have every right to be angry about his unprofessional conduct. The man is a liability.

      • Colin Smith says:
        Wednesday 7 January 2015 at 20:58

        Agree fully with those comments Ken. Cllr Karney is really only concerned with how much publicity he generates for Cllr. Karney! Meet him face-to-face in the street, having known him for goodness knows how many years, and he just completely “blanks” you and even pretends not to know you. Calling him a “liability” though, well quite frankly you are insulting liabilities in my opinion.

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