Thousands of Melbourne tram trips are being abruptly cut short and commuters left stranded, as Yarra Trams tries to dodge tough penalties for delays, leaked internal data reveals.

Monthly performance tram data obtained by The Age reveals there were about 10,670 short shunts in November last year, an average of about 356 times a day.

Short-shunting is leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Credit:Pat Scala

This was up from about 7670 short shunts the year before, marking a 33 per cent decline in performance over the year.

A short shunt occurs when a tram is stopped before it has reached the end of the line and turned back. This enables the tram to collect passengers travelling in the opposite direction and return on time.