I noticed before an announcement was made so decided to take this picture.
As soon as an announcement was made it was all hands to the pumps so to speak. All the people on the platform and from nearby stations flooded the bus station in Piccadilly. Now lets remember that Manchester United have an home game tonight so there is already a lot of people trying to get home from work and to the match.
The passengers were all told that there tickets were valid on the buses and they should go to use them.
This would have been fine but Metrolink had sadly not called us to arrange for this to happen and as a result we could not take there tickets and passes.
Arriva however had been asked so hundreds of people swamped the 263 stand and waited for that.
This was followed by question after question after question. When yo wear a hi vis jacket, No matter who you work for you are supposed to know the answer. "whens the tram back one" Why are the 263s Small buses" "Can we use our tickets on your buses" The list was endless.
Between 5 and 6 it was a case of finding extra buses to run on the 41,250 and 256 service from nowhere. There were thousands of people in Piccadilly and i must say we pulled it off.
I do think that Metrolink and Arriva however were left looking somewhat amateur. As soon as we knew the tram was in trouble we got extra buses from everywhere. It was a huge undertaking and whilst i write this now at 9pm i can still feel the adrenaline working overtime and felt the need to say what happened. At one point i had a group of 45 school children who were going back to school following a day out and they were just left stranded. They had no money to pay for the kids to get back and there was no way they were all going to get on a service bus together. So following a phone call i arranged for a bus to take them back to school safely and away from the organised chaos that was going on around.
I know i shouldn't knock other companies but i have got to say the Metrolink has really let a lot of people down recently and i just hope that it gets fixed very soon. For this sort of thing to happen on match day is not acceptable i think. And i would hate to think what would happen if it was a Manchester Derby game.
Anyway we made sure the majority of peple got home tonight and it has really made me realise what a great job we can all do, drivers and Inspectors when things go a little wrong. I left work about an hour late but it was worth it and by that time it was just the usual footbal fans and the hundreds still waiting for the 263.
Whilst i do like to big our company up because i can. I will add these to even things out....
Think First Manchester stepped in with the help as I heard a message over their radio for volunteers.
ReplyDeleteWere there any double connected trams seen during the chaos?
Looking at the 135 pic, why is the doors open there??
Wow, interesting account, I had heard rumours Metrolink had had problems today but didn't realise what an effect it had, the problem with the Metrolink is that when there's a problem they never seem to have any emergency plans in place and take the 'sod ya' attitude towards passengers, will be interesting to see what the public transport loving MEN say about this tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAs to First and the 135, well we all know how they like to alight in stupid places, just look at the 348's and 350's dumping passengers outside the bus station in Ashton.
But to even things out plenty of 216's and 219's block the crossing at the top of the stand in Ashton. I do wonder how many times a week companies are actually fined by TFGM for these breaches!
seems First Ashton are getting day loans every day on bus that has been on loan all week has been 31948
DeleteThere is only one zebra crossing in Ashton, near the arcades, all the others are just allocated crossing places !!
ReplyDeleteChris according to TFGM NON of the crossings should be blocked, whether a bus is waiting to go on to a stand or waiting to exit the bus station at the lights, I'm told operators are fined by TFGM if there caught doing this.
DeleteIt's somewhat of a bone of contention with me, it's common sense not to block a crossing, zebra or not!
Very true though. I spend plenty of time in Ashton moving buses off the Authorised crossing points.
ReplyDeleteSpeedwell had a habit of alighing passengers off the 395/6 on wellington Rd, Speedwell probably went bankrupt because they had to cough up multiple fines from TfGM+GMPTE.
ReplyDeleteSeen couple more loans to Pioneer again being 34031/88/102 and Queens Rd 60368 on the 350. Also seen 22158 on the 345 service and 22151 been repainted
TFGM can do nothing about buses alighting on Wellington Rd as it's a public highway but they say it shouldn't happen as thats what the bus station is about.
DeleteStagecoach say none of there drivers should ever alight there, First won't comment but say they will 'ask' there drivers to use the bus station instead.
It really annoys me when buses I'm travelling on do this so have taken to complaining to both the driver then the company. It's certainly proving interesting!
saw 34102 last night but 31948 is the one i have seen most of all this week
ReplyDeleteI was crossing through Picc just as it was starting - at the moment the announcement about the 263 was made (no other services mentioned at that point; wouldn't surprise me if people just assumed it would be OK with every other company too!) to see the 263 in the bus station was already full as it was rush hour, and was also a single deck! The driver must have wondered what was going on when he saw a stampede make its way towards him.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'd finished my day at 3.15; especially as I'd been on the 86s!
Reckon some of these e400's are to go when the new hybrids go in service, unless if they withdraw all of the olympians and repaint the remaining tridents into MAGIC BUS livery, those times again.
ReplyDeleteSeen 22158 hovering around Ashton with LED display, is it another loan?
40370 been erased off the fleetlist of NWBUS, but still seen in service, most certainly confused
40312/66 not seen for almost 3 weeks?
can confirm 40370 is still at Ashton as i went on it last week
Delete40347 is withdrawn 40001 not seen this week read on facebook that all firstbus P reg darts are to be withdrawn
Ashton got new 59011/14/15/16 40312/13/14 not seen this week may have moved to Oldham
That's what is happening, ollys gone and London tridents painted blue, why would we lose e400's? Lol
ReplyDeleteabout 3 yr ago Stagecoach manchester got new buses and a few e400's such as 19047/50/2 etc got transferred to Scotland and Devon. The thought of new buses coming has feared that more e400's could go because there are so many of them
ReplyDeleteWasnt It the 02 tridents that were transferred to other groups, the first batch of Enviros is still here, most at AZ, most are as rough as a bag of potatoes.
ReplyDeleteWe did lose some to Devon, i once had an mx56 come up from Devon on Megabus, random buses though
ReplyDeleteUEFA match: Driver ran a red light, snapping the points at Timperley. Unaware, he kept going with the damaged tram which later failed at Shudehill on it's way back, hence chaos.
ReplyDeleteThe O2 tridents were new to manchester only for the Commonwealth games. Most are in Hull now.
ReplyDelete19093-5 (MX56 PHK/N/O) and 19102, 19105-7, 19109, 19110, 19119 (MX07 HMA/E-G/J/K/HND) are all in Devon. Unless things have recently changed, that is. 19072-6 (MX56 FTE/F/K/N/O) all went somewhere too. Somewhere in or near Lincolnshire I think.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, great to read a good story like this, getting people where they need to go despite the apparent chaos. Good on you all.