The opening of the long-awaited tramline to south Manchester has been delayed another week – after work to install a trouble-plagued computer system brought chaos to the entire Metrolink network.
Services on the Eccles line had to be suspended early yesterday and passengers also faced severe delays on the Bury and Altrincham lines after a problem near Cornbrook.
The fault was caused by engineers fitting and testing the system, called TMS, for the new south Manchester line this weekend.
The line, which has stops at Firswood, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and St Werburgh’s Road, was supposed to open by Friday but has now been put back to next week at the earliest.
The fault was noticed at 6am yesterday. The Eccles line was shut down and commuters told to get the 33 bus into Manchester instead.
The line reopened just after 8am but there were severe delays across the network throughout the morning.
By 11.30am all services, including those on the Altrincham and Bury lines, were still up to 30 minutes late.
The problems were finally sorted out on all lines by mid-afternoon.
It is the latest in a string of problems to hit TMS, which is designed to electronically ‘map’ the position of every tram and automatically control points and signals.
The system has been trialled on the MediaCity ‘spur’ in Salford and is due to be rolled out across the entire tram network.
It was responsible for 24 service failures on the spur between September 2010 and February this year.
The M.E.N. revealed earlier this month how engineers had spent eight months sitting in a van next to the line watching trams go through the junction as part of ‘manual monitoring’ of the system.
It has also been blamed by tram bosses for three-month delays on the long-awaited extensions to Rochdale and Oldham.
Philip Purdy, Metrolink director for Transport for Greater Manchester, said he was sorry to disappoint people waiting for the new south Manchester line.
He said: “We have to make sure we have done all the testing and commissioning before we welcome passengers aboard.
“The problem is that the new system is as advanced as the current system is old, so it’s a bit like connecting your modern PC to a Commodore 64 and making them work together at this higher level.
“We were able to do some preparation and commissioning this weekend but the available time didn’t allow us to complete the integration testing of an upgrade.
“Frustratingly for us and our customers this upgrade then caused a fault on the existing system which meant we had disruption this morning. We have done many similar upgrades in the past without any problems.”
TfGM said engineers from Thales, the contractor delivering the new system, will now reschedule the remaining work to this weekend. Replacement buses will be put in place for affected passengers on the Altrincham line.
METROLINK bosses say a tram breakdown near Piccadilly Gardens may have been caused by the hot weather. The fault was caused by the tram’s traction control unit overheating. A spokesman said it was ‘possibly’ caused by the weather.
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Contsistency is a key factor to the successful delivery of a public transportation system however I think someone should point out to Metrolink that being a constant letdown does not tick the same box!
Better get the busses out.Great advertising for the bus service and cars.
The only question on Purdy's job application form must have been " How many excuses for a breakdown or an utterly rubbish service can you give in 20 minutes ".
Answer : Thousands and thousands.
Between 1824 -1829 - 38 miles of railway were engineered from Liverpool to Manchester.
In the nine years since the Commonwealth games we still await ONE MILE of operational track from the centre of Manchester to Sportcity!!!!
Talk about dragging a job out!!!!
I recently travelled across Barcelona on the equivalent system - a distance of 12 miles for just over a quid - a three mile journey on the metro link almost three quid!!!!!
Bring back the trolley buses!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Doesn't exactly fill you with great confidence once it eventually opens does it?
Will the prices be increased to pay for all the engineers overtime needed to fix the endless number of faults this network seems to get.
We eagerly await next weeks excuse for a further delay
Calm down folks it's only newness .lol
If they have not even got the Control system installed who was the bight spark that wanted to set a opening date to the media? How can you give 1 week for the system to be fully tested? have they tested the system to see if they can cope with a breakdown of there new system in the centre of there system with the city full of trams? all items that not been addressed.
Does anyone know when the line to Droylsden will be opening?
Am I the only one who has noticed that the tram on the posters for the second city crossing and on the top of the consultation brochure on metrolink's website appears to have derailed and is heading up onto the pavement, almost hitting a couple of pedestrians?
With de-railings, failures and the complete breakdown of the new computer system in recent weeks, is this s a sign of what we are to expect if the second city crossing goes ahead.
A surprising glimpse of honesty?
The Metrolink here in Manchester must be the worst transport system in the whole world.
The people who run it should all be sacked and replaced by people who can oversee what is after all a few miles of track. The Metrolink hardly compares with the transport networks used in most of the major cities in the world. The people at Metrolink actually believe that the network as being one of the most successful light rail systems in the UK. God help the rest of the UK if this is true. Simply stated the Manchester Metrolink is a fabulous advert for encouraging people to use their cars.
The TMS system must be windows based! They should have looked into iSignal, that wouldn't of failed!
"We were able to do some preparation and commissioning this weekend but the available time didn’t allow us to complete the integration testing of an upgrade"
But they went live anyway
I work in IT and have seen people do that - they got sacked.
Will they be replacing the hundreds of established trees that have been felled? Like for like one hopes.
When will the Wythenshawe Hospital / Manchester Airport Metrolink be completed?