Stagecoach has been blamed for a week of chaos on Greater Manchester’s Metrolink light rail network.
The rail and bus giant was lambasted for its ‘bravado and buccaneering’ in dealing with the upgrade of Metrolink lines.
Stagecoach operates Metrolink trams on behalf of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) and also won the £100m contract to modernise the network. It is being blamed for delays in restoring services following the month-long closure of lines between Manchester and Altrincham and Eccles.
Commuters who had been forced onto replacement buses throughout August should have got their trams back on Tuesday, September 1.
But, in fact, it was the evening of Sunday, September 6 before the full service was restored because of a series of unforeseen disasters involving overhead power lines. As a result, all Metrolink passengers will travel free for one day in November as an apology.
And after top level crisis talks which even involved Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter and Network Rail boss Iain Coucher, Stagecoach has agreed to pay all the extra costs of the delays.
The operator - already accused of ‘gross incompetence’ by Blackley MP Graham Stringer – now faces demands for assurances that the same will not happen again.
GMITA labour leader, Manchester Councillor Andrew Fender said: “We have a culture clash here between the rather unfortunately maligned old school public sector approach of testing everything properly to the bravado and buccaneering private sector approach which just hopes that everything will be alright.’
Managing director of Stagecoach Light Rail, Andy Morris said: ‘In the two years that Stagecoach has maintained and operated the system, we have built a reputation for an extremely high standard of service delivery. ‘In this particular project, we had an obligation to complete the renewal of six miles of 50-year-old overhead line infrastructure to a very precise timescale.’
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