Apparently they are temporarirly banned from the Altrincham line as they suffer from a mechical fault which kicks in at 35mph and there's also a clearance issue at Altrincham station meaning the M500s have to stop much further up the platform than the T68s.

When was this ban implemented? I saw one on monday morning at Altrincham.

They seem to be running exclusively on Eccles services right now with the odd Bury or Victoria run, probably assosiated with a return to Queens Road. I can believe this may be down to certain issues with them, particularly that 35mph fault.

It's pretty much been a disaster of a tram to be honest, nice in theory but badly executed. More testing was clearly needed. The Flexiswift wasn't designed for National Rail style running as far as I know.

I agree they need work but unfortunately they're here now, so they need some modifications....