A broken down tram caused disruption for travellers in Manchester city centre on Monday night (November 21). The issue comes just a day before major works at Piccadilly Gardens are set to begin.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) announced shortly after 4pm that a 'failed tram' in the city centre caused services to be terminated at different stops, leaving many puzzled as to when they could board the next one. It took around an hour for the disruption to be resolved.
Councillor Pat Karney tweeted a picture of a crowd of commuters stood at St Peter's Square on Monday evening after the tram broke down, where he comically wrote: "I'm a Commuter... Get Me out of Here!"
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He then said there had been little communication regarding the disruption, where he added: "Tram Chaos at Peter Sq. What’s happening. Poor Communications. Keep being asked what’s happening and could I ring Andy Burnham."
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) announced that there had been a failure, which lasted for around an hour before the tram was moved. They posted: "The failed tram has now been moved, and services can now operate through the city centre."
However after the incident, TfGM reported 'severe delays' on the Manchester Airport, Ashton-Under-Lyne and East Didsbury lines.
There was much confusion on social media about why people's services had not shown up during a typically busy rush hour in the city centre, as one person wrote: "I’ve been waiting here for 45 mins with NO trams arriving. And now we’ve been told the situation is resolved but still NO trams for the last 20 mins since this at Piccadilly."
Another tweeted: "Ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous. Every week a new excuse why multiple lines aren't working as they should, affecting thousands of people's commutes."
It comes just a day before major repair works are set to start on tram lines at Piccadilly. TfGM have announced that essential track replacement works will take place at Piccadilly Gardens tram stop from Tuesday November 22, for a week, until November 29.
During the closure, no trams will operate between Piccadilly Station and Piccadilly Gardens. Bury and Altrincham services will not operate into Piccadilly Station and will instead operate via Market Street. Ashton line services will operate to Piccadilly Station every 12 minutes and Eccles services will operate to Deansgate-Castlefield.
More information on the replacement bus services in place can be found here.
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