Bus has crashed into Metrolink

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I’m in Manchester and heard a huge bang. So a bus has come round the corner of Picc Gardens and Mosley St and smashed into a double tram. Wreckage quite bad. Police screaming at everyone to get out the way



Image shows damage

 

[Sun Chariot]

Crumbs. I hope no serious injuries. Which vehicle seemed to be the cause of the incident?

 

[yoyothehobo]

It does look like the bus is en route to drive down the tram lines there

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Crumbs. I hope no serious injuries. Which vehicle seemed to be the cause of the incident?

Bus.

 

[Tramfan]

Hopefully everyone involved is OK, particularly as it appears to be a head-on collision. The bus appears to have ended up on the tram only bit somehow

 

[Segedunum]

Can confirm that there's quite a queue of empty trams along Market Street and the Exchange Square route is predictably very very congested. The roads in general are pretty messy.

Hopefully everyone is OK.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I can’t quote as it’s from an internal journalist source, but apparently GM Fire are reporting one casualty unfortunately.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Looks like the bus has come round the end of Piccadilly Gardens bus station and then gone straight on rather than making the second left turn. At least it wasn’t into the bus station.

Really sorry to hear there’s been a casualty.

 

[Rail Ranger]

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/live-air-ambulance-lands-piccadilly-30177986

Four people have been injured - one seriously - following a head-on crash between a tram and bus in Piccadilly Gardens.

Police, fire and ambulance services were called to the scene shortly after 2pm on Friday. An air ambulance also landed on the grass area of the city centre square.

The ambulance service confirmed four people have been injured including one seriously. A statement from North West Ambulance Service says: "We’re responding to an RTC at Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, following a 999 call at 2.13pm.

This crash caused widespread disruption to Metrolink and bus services.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Manchester city centre: Bus and tram in head-on collision

A number of tram stops in Manchester's city centre have been closed as a result of the crash.

www.bbc.co.uk

Image caption, The crash happened at about 14:15 BST


Emergency services were called to the crash at about 14:15 BST at Piccadilly Plaza, which left four people injured, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said.

My photo has been used by BBC News for the headline image, which is quite an honour as a young journalist.

So sad to hear people have been injured. Really awful thing to happen.

 

[sierraromeo]

Still major disruption. Stuck at queens Road and I’ve just seen an Altrincham tram full of passengers head through the Queens Road depot. Never seen that before. Believe some signaling problems as well to add on to the problems.

 

[507 001]

It has certainly been an interesting evening looking at the disruption logs.

I’m very glad I booked AL for today!

 

[Metrolink]

I was there waiting for the bus as it happened, and there was a huge bang and a lot of commotion as it happened. In all honesty I’m still quite shook by what happened, and my thoughts go to the passengers and driver of both tram and bus who are suffering at this time.

In terms of what happened, based on the livery of the bus (and its direction/destination) exact location of the RTC and the junction itself, I could only assume the bus driver had lost control and that the tram was stationary or slow moving. (Note that i don’t intend to provide a false account and am recalling the events to the best of my ability)

At the time (and currently) my main concern was the welfare so I made a 999 call and the police and necessary emergency services arrived very swiftly. My thoughts go out to those involved.

 

[sierraromeo]

It has certainly been an interesting evening looking at the disruption logs.

I’m very glad I booked AL for today!

Are you able to comment at all on passenger movements through depots?

Was very surprised to see this as we were at Queens Road.

I assume what I saw reversed out of the depot onto the Rochdale line and then headed headed into town?

 

[507 001]

Are you able to comment at all on passenger movements through depots?

Was very surprised to see this as we were at Queens Road.

I assume what I saw reversed out of the depot onto the Rochdale line and then headed headed into town?

I can’t I’m afraid. As I wasn’t in I have no idea what happened anyway.

 

[High Dyke]

YouTube footage found, showing the vehicles being taken away.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Interesting that the Metrolink tram (3053) was driven off, (presumably in the direction of Queens Road depot, for repair in due course), with the damaged cab at the front.

 

[Tim33160]

Now said to be bus driver medical episode - the bus instead of turning left hand 180 degree turn back along the other side of Parker St, turned 90 degree into path of tram on tram only section. Driver released by Fire and Rescue and taken to hospital

Mosley Street is one of the busiest parts of the system with 5 trams every 12 mins in each direction (Ashton - Eccles, MediaCity - Etihad, Altrincham-Piccadilly, Altrincham - Bury; Airport to Victoria) System reopened with severe delays from around 1820 - incident said to be 1415.

 

[185]

Almost one year to the day a single decker Diamond bus went through the front window of the bubble tea shop 40 metres away.

Sadly, incidents like this give weight to greedy TfGM's silly ideas to sell off it's prime located bus stations for profit.

 

[Rail Ranger]

Err.. Piccadilly Gardens is not a bus station. Parker Street is the public highway. TfGM have built a number of new bus stations in recent years.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Err.. Piccadilly Gardens is not a bus station. Parker Street is the public highway. TfGM have built a number of new bus stations in recent years.

A lot of bus stations are public highway rather than private land. Doesn't make them any less bus stations, i.e. a place large numbers of bus routes serve in the centre of an urban area.

 

[Rail Ranger]

It is Manchester City Council who would like to remove the buses from Piccadilly Gardens.

 

[Leyland Bus]

Interesting that the Metrolink tram (3053) was driven off, (presumably in the direction of Queens Road depot, for repair in due course), with the damaged cab at the front.

It was obviously still mobile but would likely been moved by either engineering or senior staff... Out of curiosity, do Metrolink still have the diesel loco from when the system was first built??

 

[Rail Ranger]

Yes but I heard that it was no longer used and was up for sale.

 

[507 001]

It was obviously still mobile but would likely been moved by either engineering or senior staff... Out of curiosity, do Metrolink still have the diesel loco from when the system was first built??

it was also being escorted through the city by the Network Incident Officer.

The SPV is still at Queens Rd, but hasn’t been in service for over a year. It would have been useless in this case though as the crash compromised the coupler.

 

[Ethano92]

Almost one year to the day a single decker Diamond bus went through the front window of the bubble tea shop 40 metres away.

Sadly, incidents like this give weight to greedy TfGM's silly ideas to sell off it's prime located bus stations for profit.

Unfortunately Piccadilly Gardens is a very congested area trying to be a bus station, public square and critical tram junction all at once. This leads to a pretty poor experience for all involved and can be intimidating as a pedestrian.

Piccadilly Gardens bus station is in a very central location but not much more than a cluster of bus shelters, far from what you’d expect for the centre of Manchester. Look at Shudehill or Stockport Interchange by contrast. In saying that I’m not sure what the alternative would be.

A very unfortunate event but it does seem the emergency service response was pretty well coordinated especially given the location.

 

[185]

Look at Shudehill or Stockport Interchange by contrast. In saying that I’m not sure what the alternative would be.

TfGM demolished the alternative, a proper bus station, as Metrolink and that dirty red office block arrived. Interestingly, TfGM used to have it's offices in Piccadilly Gardens, next door to the thistle on Portland Street - the new expensive office block next to Picc Station was an extravagance.

 

[Bletchleyite]

TfGM demolished the alternative, a proper bus station, as Metrolink and that dirty red office block arrived.

That "dirty red office block" postdates Metrolink by about 20 years.

It used to be a traditional bus station in the GM sense of "lots of poorly lit long metal corridors with opaque plastic windows and a strong smell of urine and alcohol" - it's definitely nicer now, not that I'd say it is great. Those old style bus stations, once ubiquitous in GM (and how Stockport was before the big rebuild), were horrible. It's never been one of the nicer modern concrete and glass ones like Shudehill, though from some Googling it seems it had a higher ceiling than some of them and the windows were actually glass so probably wasn't quite *as* nasty.

 

[185]

It used to be a traditional bus station in the GM sense of "lots of poorly lit long metal corridors with opaque plastic windows and a strong smell of urine and alcohol" - it's definitely nicer now, not that I'd say it is great. Those old style bus stations, once ubiquitous in GM (and how Stockport was before the big rebuild), were horrible.

But those were rebuilt and replaced. Picc Gardens wasn't - it was reduced by 66% and became several grim bus stops mostly for Wilmslow Road services.

 

[Akela]

Unfortunately Piccadilly Gardens is a very congested area trying to be a bus station, public square and critical tram junction all at once. This leads to a pretty poor experience for all involved and can be intimidating as a pedestrian.

Piccadilly Gardens bus station is in a very central location but not much more than a cluster of bus shelters, far from what you’d expect for the centre of Manchester. Look at Shudehill or Stockport Interchange by contrast. In saying that I’m not sure what the alternative would be.

A very unfortunate event but it does seem the emergency service response was pretty well coordinated especially given the location.

Personally I think there should be a bus station at directly connected to Manchester Piccadilly, something similar to Stockport’s new bus interchange. Would be much more convenient for people catching a train while still just a short walk or tram hop to the city centre proper.