Market Street points failures reappear in heatwave
By the outbound platform at Market Street is a track switch, allowing either a route direct to Piccadilly (left) or towards St Peter’s Square (right). These points specifically have been having constant issues even before the start of the May, June, and July 2026 heatwaves, but specifically had faults on Wed 8 and Thu 9 July 2026 at around the same time of day both times.
On 8 July at around 16:17 GMT, a message was issued on the TfGM website:
“Due to a points fault at Market Street, we are experiencing a delay to services through the city. Services from Victoria will operate via Exchange Square towards St. Peter’s Square until further notice. Services towards Piccadilly and Victoria from St. Peter’s Square are unaffected”
Tram 3015 to Altrincham was seen leaving Victoria going towards Exchange Square at 16:33.
On the walk to Market Street, a double tram to Bury was spotted running along High Street in the opposite direction at 16:36; only trams from Victoria to St Peter’s Square/Piccadilly were affected.
Workers at the Market Street points at 16:40.
The problem is presumed to have something to do with the proximity switches at Market Street.
Proximity switches are no-contact sensors used on railways to detect the presence (or position) of metallic objects on the track, e.g. for checking where trains are, checking if a door is secured shut, etc. These are used at Market Street to confirm whether the points switch blades have moved and locked correctly, and the ongoing issues likely have to do with them. High temperatures can cause slight rail expansion, making the proximity switches potentially unreliable and triggering a points failure even when the blades are in the correct position.
The first tram were allowed through again at 16:43 as seen here.
At this point, the workers would temporarily move away and let the tram pass.
The induction loop (a wire embedded in the track and is usually not visible) detects if a tram is near it and automatically sets the points to either left (for Piccadilly Gardens) or right (for St Peter’s Square) based on the tram’s destination, e.g. Altrincham is towards St Peter’s Square, so right; Ashton via Piccadilly is towards Piccadilly Gardens, so left. I assumed at first that it was an issue with the induction loop not setting the points correctly, but a worker told me that it had more to do with the proximity switches, so with the workers on-site checking that the points were set correctly, trams were allowed to continue running through at around 16:40.
Workers placing coverings back on the points machinery.
Presumably having solved the issue, the workers left at 17:15.
Works were done on these specific points recently, over the 1-9 June 2026 closure. The Shudehill - Market Street section was closed for nine days, and workers were seen at the points a few times. This makes it slightly confusing how the points are still having continuous problems even in the heat faced a few days ago.
Closure posters at Market Street on 7 June.
I didn’t personally see any workers at Shudehill or Market Street during the works, but others notified me.
Once again, the heatwave struck the points machinery the very next day after the previous issue (Thursday 9 July 2026) at around the same time of day (15:36 GMT), when another message appeared on the TfGM website:
“Due to a points fault at Market Street. Services from Victoria will operate via Exchange Square towards St. Peter’s Square until further notice. Services towards Piccadilly and Victoria from St. Peter’s Square are unaffected”
Workers at the points again on 9 July.
The failures happening at around the same time two days in a row is clearly linked to the peak temperature experienced at around this time of the day.
Around 29ºC max was experienced here on 8 July, and 30ºC max on 9 July. Also due to the heat, two other points faults happened on the Rochdale Line at Newton Heath and Moston and Shaw and Crompton. A message appeared on the website at 16:29 GMT:
“Due to points faults at Shaw & Crompton, and Newton Heath & Moston, there are no services operating between Rochdale Town Centre and Newton Heath & Moston. Tickets and passes are being accepted on the 17, 57, 59, 76, 81, 83, 84, 114, 149, 181, 182, 409, 411, 435, 436, 471 bus services.”
The next few days saw points failures at Victoria on Fri 10 July in the evening (and a tram fault in the morning), and another on Sat 11 July (unspecified location), and an overhead line fault at St Werburgh’s Road on Sun 12 July, with disruption lasting for around 7 hours.
