Ice sparks trams chaos

Don Frame

December 01, 2008

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RUSH-hour commuters faced chaos on the Metrolink system south of Manchester because of ice on the tracks.

An ice-breaker sent out to clear the lines after a heavy frost overnight, got stuck at Timperley and had to be shunted into sidings and there were numerous service cancellations and delays.

Two trams heading into the city centre from Altrincham had to be turned back at Old Trafford, and another had to be stopped at Timperley.

A spokesman for Metrolink today (Monday) said: "We had an extremely heavy frost and there were unexpected difficulties in clearing the tracks.

"The ice-breaker, which is simply an empty tram sent out to clear the way, broke down and the situation was worst between Brooklands and Timperley.

"Other trams were finally able to get through but it meant quite serious disruptions to services, which then had knock-on effects to service north of the network.

"We put out announcements at stations but, unfortunately, it probably meant a lot of people were left to catch buses or make other arrangements to get into work."

Metrolink said services were expected to be back to normal later today.

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Dessie, Gorton (01/12/2008 at 10:08)

What is that prof TIF ad:

'I don't want to be late for work that is why I am voting yes'.

If you drive and there is an incident you can find another way but when public transport fails you are well and truly stuck.

It is ice for goodness sake - we live in Northern Europe and it happens! Other countries who have much colder weather don't have these problems but we dop - wrong kind of snow, leaves on the line etc and plaese don't say that TIF will solve it because on the Metrolink it means just a few extra carieges.

I'm glad I wasn't stood in -3.5c waiting on a tram station this morning.

£1920 not another TAX! VOTE AGAINST TIF! Paul Teeque, Running away from SPIN (01/12/2008 at 10:11)

More reason not to go back 50 years and talk about trams trams trams like its going to revolutionise manchester. VOTE NO TO CON TAX

midway, Ostsee (01/12/2008 at 10:22)

I have just been laughting out loudly at this!
It's like something out of Dads Army.Don't Panic.My mum won't arf shout if i am late home!Stupid Boy!!

drew-peacock, romiley (01/12/2008 at 10:42)

I'm off to Krakow on thursday..I can bet the ice and frost will be worse there...and all the trams will be running.
They look at the weather report the night before I would think.

Peter (01/12/2008 at 10:45)

What a farce! And the town hall clowns want the people of Greater Manchester to subsidise this further.

dessie, manchester (01/12/2008 at 10:52)

what other evidence do you need ice stopping trams for god sake!!!

and lets not forget they are adding a couple of extra carriages to get workers in to manchester!! just think how many bosses will be happy their workers will be late

just vote NO!!!

Phileas T Fogplatter, A-u-L Lancashire (01/12/2008 at 10:55)

They have forcast heavy snow for Wednesday - wrap up well you public transport users! - I feel sorry for pensioners this weather, the thoughts of Sir Alex waiting at cold bus stop for "hours" - fill me with dread.

power to the people uk (01/12/2008 at 11:10)

GOD has obviously given his vote on con charge and dealt it a major blow by stopping the trams,just like that.

Rammylad (01/12/2008 at 11:12)

It is amazing, every year this country has a winter, it gets cold, the weathermen predict it, yet......

Our councils and public transport still seem surpriased and thouroughly unprepared for it when it happens.

Heres a news flash Metrolink, the cold weather will last anoth 3 moths and then will happen again next year and the year after that and.....

Caped Crusader, Gotham City (01/12/2008 at 12:35)

'I don't want to be late for work that is why I am voting yes'.

"I gave up using public transport because I was fed up of being late for work, being marooned in Sale when the trams broke down or taking an hour to do the 3 miles from the City Centre to my home because buses didn't turn up." That's the same public transport that will revolutionsie our lives and why I've voted NO.

Peter M, Mcr (01/12/2008 at 13:04)

Don't worry, once the con charge is introduced, winters will be abolished and trams won't break down.

Tidders, Rochdale - VOTE NO to the Con Charge (01/12/2008 at 13:08)

and we are supposed to put up with 30 years of debt on the back of a super tram system - no way - Vote NO it might stop some people dying of hyperthermia while stood at tram stops during the winter.

Mark,Radcliffe. (01/12/2008 at 13:19)

-3 and the system cant cope..so why would it be any different 30 billion quid later ?

Rick D'alaglio (01/12/2008 at 13:58)

Why do posters on here think this a reason to vote no? (which, by the way, I've already done for better reasons) The standard procedure for such cold mornings is to send an empty tram (an "ice-breaker") to safely clear the lines before services run on them. This normally happens without problems on cold mornings such as today (not just in the country but on other similar systems in countries where similar weather occurs). From what I can gather the problem was that the "ice-breaker" broke down which then blocked the line.
A couple of weeks ago my neighbour couldn't get out his drive because another car had broken down in the queue directly across it. It happens. It's called bad luck. It has basically nothing to do with TIF.
If you're going to vote no then at least do it for a sensible reason - like the fact that for the vast majority of people it won't actually provide a viable alternative to driving (even when it does run properly!)

Dessie, Gorton (01/12/2008 at 15:26)

Rick, I too had the misfortune to have my car break down and this inconvenienced me and I was slightly late for work. Nobody else was incovenienced.

However the whole network comes grinding to a halt when the Metrolink fails which is understanabel but is still fact.

When the Metrolink was established the cheapest tracks were bought, chaepest trams etc and you know what they say about getting what you pay for.

Besides, most people don't pay on the trams anyway from what I have seen. So if we want funding for a new transport system start by collecting fares on the tram and also making the 2.4m drivers without insurance or road tax pay up. Enforce the current laws rather than bleeding dry honest people.

Rammylad (01/12/2008 at 15:50)

Don't worry, once the con charge is introduced, winters will be abolished and trams won't break down.
Peter M, Mcr

I can see the wevoteyesbecausewerereallyrich poster now: -

I want it to be sunny all day every day in Manchester, that's why I am voting yes. But which of chewbaccas friends would say such a thing.

birch em all, just outside 3rd pricing zone (01/12/2008 at 16:26)

Donna. Harpurhey (01/12/2008 at 16:42)

Just when they've convinced me to sell my warm, reliable, clean little car car I now find out Congestion Tax funded trams dont work in the cold. Never mind we can always walk to work to keep warm because we're poor and the poor shouldn't own cars should they ?

Ace Shakespeare , manchester (01/12/2008 at 17:05)

Surely they ractored ice and snow in the design of the tram in the first place? somebody wants to tell the tram people we live in a country that has frost and snow in winter? and lots of rain. Now this should give people something to think about when you vote for congestion charge or not? YOU CANNOT RELY ON TRAMS WHEN YOU REALLY NEED THEM .THE COLD DAMP FROZEN WINTER" Stay in your warm car.

Esso Blue, Manchester (01/12/2008 at 17:36)

Manchester Evening News, I think I know when humor steps over the boundaries, and I don't do that, I have noticed that you do censor some of my comments and don't print them. Once humor has gone we are all gone said the dragon whose fire I extinguished.

Rammylad (01/12/2008 at 17:44)

Comments like "Heres a news flash Metrolink, the cold weather will last anoth 3 moths and then will happen again next year and the year after that and..... " only go to prove the ignorance of the writer, rather than a knowledge of the subject. The reason Metrolink has to put put ice breakers is because they do not run 24/7. If they did run 24/7 the overhead lines (and its the overheads that ice up NOT the rails!) would never be allowed to ice up. The ice breaker does just that, it breaks ice off the overhead that has formed while the service is not running. It would be very rare for any ice to form while the service is running.

I AM FULLY AWARE OF THAT, THE POINT HAD YOU PAUSED FOR A SECOND TO UNDERSTAND IT, IS THAT WE HAVE COLD WEATHER EVERY YEAR, WE HAVE TRAMS FAILING EVERY YEAR DUE TO THE COLD WEATHER. SURELY WE CAN COME UP WITH A SYSTEM WHERE THE ICE BREAKER CAN GO OUT AND DO ITS JOB WITHOUT BREAKING DOWN. PERHAPS IT IS A MANAGEMENT ISSUE, I.E. THEY HAVE A SPARE TRAM WARMED UP AND READY TO ROLL SHOULD THE FIRST BREAKDOWN. THE REALITY IS WE HAVE COLD WEATHER EVERY YEAR, WE WERE TOLD OF THIS COLD SNAP VERY EARLY YET WE STILL MANAGED TO GET OUR TRAM STUCK AND BRING THE SYSTEM DOWN. ONE TRAM AND -3 TEMP BRINGS THE SYSTEM DOWN. WHO NEEDS TERRORISTS WHEN YOU HAVE THIS KIND OF POOR PLANNING.

If Rammylad had spent time reading the article he would have seen that the fault was with the tram NOT with the weather. Still, ignorance is bliss!!

SO THE TRAM WAS OUT BREAKING ICE OF THE LINE WHICH IT WOULD NOT HAVE NEEDED TO DO IF IT WASN'T FOR THE WEATHER.

No matter how much, or how little, cash from the TIF is spent on Metrolink the overhead lines will continue to freeze up until we have a 24hr tram system.

THE TRAM IS NOISY FOR THOSE LIVING ALONG SIDE THE LINE, MY GRANDPARENTS LIVE 350 YARDS AWAY FROM THE HEATON PARK AREA OF THE LINE AND A SUMMERS DAY IS DISTURBED BY THAT UNMISTAKABLE CHEAP TRAM ON CHEAP TRACK NOISE THAT EMANATES. I REALLY FEEL FOR THOSE THAT LIVE NEXT TO THE LINE. IN DUBLIN THEY USE SYTHETIC WHEELS TO REDUCE NOISE AND WE USE .... HIGH PITCHED WHISTELING WHEELS.

Personally, I would only vote for a TIF if it guaranteed ALL the money collected was put in to improving the roads and ignoring public transport all together!

THE TIF BID HAS NOT REALLY BEEN THOUGHT OUT AND IS JUST AN EXCUSE FOR MANCHESTER TO CON THE PEOPLE. RICHARD LEESE LOOKED LIKE A GOOD POLITICIAN THANKS TO THE IRA BLOWING UP M&S AS THE GOVERNMENT PUMPED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS INTO MANCHESTER, NOW HE HAS TO BE GOOD AND ONLY USE COUNCIL TAX, SUDDENLY HE IS VOID OF IDEAS AND ABILITY. HIS ANSWER, CREATE A VAGUE TIF BID WHERE THE PEOPLE OF MANCHESTER TAKE OUT A £1.2bn LOAN. HE IS A BAD MAN AND ONLY A NO VOTE WILL GIVE US A CHANCE TO GET BACK SOME DEMOCRACY IN THIS CITY.

birch em all, just outside 3rd pricing zone

QUITE

Esso Blue, Manchester (01/12/2008 at 18:37)

I have voted NO but I am helpful so here is a money making scheme for tiff, use the machine to break the ice then turn the free ice into lollies and sell them on the trams then the revenue can be used to give the private trains extra money for new carriages

citycentre, manchester (01/12/2008 at 20:43)

and with new lines from didsbury/chorlton and wythneshawe proposed to converge on a single line between trafford and the city centre, one faulty tram will shut the entire system

even without breakdown i need to be convinced that the section between gmex and cornbrook and just south will cope with the extra trams set to run through it

Rammylad (01/12/2008 at 22:50)

With the oldham line joining the bury line just before victoria station the 6 minute service from bury to manchester will become a 12 minute journey, therefore the double length trams will not be carrying more passengers, they are needed just to maintain the status quo.

Doesn't tell you that in the council propoganda does it. You have t force that out of them.

alvinlwh (02/12/2008 at 13:03)

Remember the last time the tram broken down? People at my company who are late for work got warning letters. And those who do not change their travel habits and are late again this time, well, they got their P45s.

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