Manchester’s tram network is in a right old mess.

At the start of last week, the Metrolink director apologised for the disruption following technical faults at Cornbrook station. Since then, Manchester’s tram service has steadily deteriorated.

Rush hour?

Things came to a head at 715am yesterday (Monday, 21 October 2013) when a points failure at Cornbrook (again) left commuters stacked up in stationary trams for more than an hour at rush hour. This ruins everyone’s day because Cornbrook is Metrolink’s most important stop, used by trams to and from East Didsbury (including trams to and from Chorlton), Altrincham, MediaCityUK, Eccles, Bury and Rochdale.

I can’t normally be bothered to make a formal complaint (otherwise I would’ve complained about the lack of double-trams to East Didsbury a long, long time ago…rather than right this second). But yesterday morning I cracked and did just that.

Complaint to Metrolink

As I was stuck on the tram, I wrote a message to Metrolink customer services with three main gripes:

The points have failed several times in the past fortnight at this precise point and at this exact time. Almost no information about the reasons/likely duration of the stoppage was provided to users. The driver only explained when a passenger confronted him. And even then, the information given was contradictory. The Metrolink website says there is a bus replacement service available yet this was never relayed to users.

Metrolink response setting out Cornbrook plan

Today, Metrolink customer services replied to me. The response is actually pretty interesting and includes details of Metrolink’s proposed short-term and long-term fixes, which I’ve not seen anywhere else. Feel free to refer to it next time the points fail at Cornbrook: