OUT OF ORDER

M.E.N. FINDS SEVEN METROLINK STATIONS WITH LIFTS NOT WORKING AFTER COMPLAINTS FROM DISABLED PASSENGERS

- By JAMES HOLT

The broken lift at Central Park station and, below, the sign on the door

LIFTS at a number of Metrolink stops across Greater Manchester have been out of order in recent weeks, in one instance leaving a disabled man in a wheelchair stranded on the platform at night.

When the Manchester Evening News contacted Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) last week, lifts at Heaton Park, Freehold, Cornbrook, Central Park, Failsworth, Firswood and Dane Road all had faults and were rendered out of service.

This meant that platforms could only be accessed by those with disabilities using other lifts and crossing the platform, or in some cases, by contacting the customer contact centre ahead of time for journey planning support.

In one instance, a wheelchair user at Failsworth Metrolink station was forced to travel to a different stop on the line and wheel himself home after becoming stranded.

Gary Dawson, who slammed TfGM in a viral video online and said that customer service had not answered his calls for help, has now received an apology from Mayor Andy Burnham who simply said: “It should not happen. We will do better.”

Mr Dawson, from Oldham, was left paralysed from the chest down and told he would never walk again following a traffic collision as a teenager. But due to two broken down lifts in Failsworth last weekend, he explained how there ‘was no way down,’ saying that TfGM ‘clearly don’t care about people with disabilities.

Following the story, the M.E.N. used Transport for Greater Manchester's travel update page and found that lifts at seven stations across the network were out of service and unable to be used by passengers.