West Midlands Metro named UK Tram Operator of the Year

Posted on Monday 9 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

West Midlands Metro is celebrating another award win after they were named UK Tram Operator of the Year at the National Transport Awards. This ceremony came just 24 hours after their recognition at the Global Light Rail Awards for various initiatives introduced over the past 12 months.

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Out and About: A brief stop at Hollinsend – July 2023

Posted on Monday 9 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Its time to get “Out and About” again as we look at some (fairly) recent photos on a UK tramway. This time out its back to Sheffield with a brief stop to Hollinsend on the Blue and Purple routes.

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Trams &: Sunderland 16 & bus

Posted on Sunday 8 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

In this “Trams &” we are again returning to Beamish – or is that Sunderland? As both the tram and bus we feature originally operated in that city.

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In Pictures: Lucie in action at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Posted on Sunday 8 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Thanks in no small part to its appearances on Channel 5 series “A Yorkshire Steam Railway” and “Britain by Steam” probably the most famous steam tram engine in the UK now is Lucie, an engine which spent most of its working life in Belgium but is now resident at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway where it has been restored to operational condition.

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Overhead line problems cause Sheffield service change

Posted on Sunday 8 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

There were changes to services being run on Stagecoach Supertram on Friday 6th October following an overhead line problem on the route to Meadowhall. The problem was at Carbrook and meant there were changes to services both on the Yellow route and the Tram-Train service.

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What’s New on British Trams Online? 8th October 2023

Posted on Sunday 8 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

This week photos come from Crich Tramway Village’s Tram Weekend which took place in September:

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Winners announced at Global Light Rail Awards

Posted on Saturday 7 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

The annual Global Light Rail Awards took place on 4th October in London with systems and individuals across the world celebrating their success over the past 12 months. As the name suggests these are Global awards and as such it isn’t only systems in the British Isles who were up for the awards and many of the winners came from overseas this year, including the “Operator of the Year” award which went to Doha, but that’s not to say there wasn’t a reason for systems here to also have a cause of celebrate about things.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Docklands Light Railway, Edinburgh Trams, Nottingham Express Transit, Tyne and Wear Metro, West Midlands Metro | Comments Off on Winners announced at Global Light Rail Awards

Around the World in Trams: Riga 88025

Posted on Saturday 7 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

In this edition of “Around the World in Trams” we are back in Riga, Latvia to take a look at a tram converted for use by the engineering department.

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Emotional visit to Crich for former tram conductor

Posted on Saturday 7 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Dennis Roberts made an emotional trip to the Crich Tramway Village on Tuesday 26th September. Dennis, 91, was a conductor on the trams in Leeds and met his wife Margaet on the trams in 1954 so the visit brought back memories from him of his youth.

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Midland Metro Alliance’s Skills lead receives education award

Posted on Saturday 7 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Rose Rees, Midland Metro Alliance’s Head of Engagement and Skills, has been recognised for her work in helping to inspire the next generation into careers in construction. Rose was recognised at the prestigious Institution of Civil Engineers West Midlands Awards where she was rewarded for her efforts to promote construction as an inclusive industry to schools and colleges in the region.

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In Pictures: Heaton Park Tramway End of Season Gala

Posted on Friday 6 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Having started their season at the end of March with an event seeing Blackpool 619 officially relaunched into service, Sunday 1st October saw Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway mark the end of the season with another special event. Unsurprisingly, it was called the End of Season Gala and whilst things didn’t quite go according to the planned plan an enjoyable event was again provided by the volunteers at the tramway.

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In Pictures: Its elementary as Sherlock Holmes returns and Picardy Place island reopens

Posted on Friday 6 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

This article is another case of us preparing an article to be published whilst away on holiday and then things changing so it was more or less out of date before it was even published! The last part of the first series of “Stop by Stop: Edinburgh Trams” featured Picardy Place and we mentioned in that article that things were a bit constricted around the stop with public realm works ongoing at the traffic island – and then it reopened with the Sherlock Holmes statue put in place too! We bring things up-to-date with this pictorial article.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool OMOs 7 & 10

Posted on Friday 6 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

This week “Picture in Time” moves from 1977 to 1978 as we take another look at the Blackpool Tramway back in the 1970s.

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In Pictures: One out, one in on the West Midlands Metro

Posted on Thursday 5 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

After a period where tram movements to and from the West Midlands Metro had been fairly quiet (its all relative when you’re used to very regular movements!) that has changed over the past couple of days. Wednesbury Depot has seen one Urbos3 head off for storage whilst a brand new Urbos100 has been delivered from Spain.

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In Pictures: Midweek opening at the East Anglia Transport Museum

Posted on Thursday 5 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

As well as the more popular Sunday opening the East Anglia Transport Museum opens on all Thursdays during the operating season with the usual mix of trams, trolleybuses and the railway all running. One such opening was on Thursday 21st September when Bryan Grint also caught up with some of the preparations for the Trolleybus Weekend starting just a couple of days later.

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Could HS2 northern leg cancellation provide a boost for trams?

Posted on Wednesday 4 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

As had been widely predicted, Wednesday 4th October saw UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirm that the northern leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester would be cancelled after the continued increase in costs. The rights and wrongs of this decision – said to be made because of the huge increase in costs for the construction of the line – are for others to comment on as it doesn’t fit within the remit of this website but as part of the announcement there was the suggestion that the money saved from not investing in HS2 would be made available for other transport projects outside of London – including the possibility that the much vaunted Leeds tram system may be back on the agenda.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, General, Manchester Metrolink, Nottingham Express Transit, South Yorkshire Supertram, West Midlands Metro | 9 Comments

TfL admit funding is not available for Sutton Tramlink extension

Posted on Wednesday 4 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

In news which will probably surprise absolutely no-one, Transport for London have admitted that they cannot afford to fund the once planned extension of Tramlink to Sutton and that they don’t see that the situation will change in the future. This pretty much puts an end to the hopes that the tram system may be expanded at any point in the foreseeable future as there remain no other active plans on TfL’s radar.

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Tramtown closed as structural surveys take place at Rigby Road Depot

Posted on Tuesday 3 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Anyone heading down to Tramtown in Blackpool (Rigby Road Depot) over the past few days will probably have been concerned by the sight of notices preventing access to the workshops and main tram shed and fencing across the front of the depot. In what seemed to be a sudden change of fortunes (Tramtown tours were still available for booking last week) it set the rumours off of what was going on but things have now been clarified after the release of a statement from Blackpool Transport Managing Director Jane Cole.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 8 Comments

FOCUS+ provides breakthrough in driver fatigue detection

Posted on Tuesday 3 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

FOCUS+ – a wearable device that has been designed to detect the onset of fatigue in tram drivers – has delivered excellent results in independent tests which were commissioned by UKTram. The tests have shown that the technology has an accuracy rate of over 98%.

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In Pictures: 54 enters service on the West Midlands Metro

Posted on Monday 2 October 2023 by Gareth Prior

Its been some time since a new tram entered service on the West Midlands Metro (over two months in fact) but that chanced on Saturday 30th September when 54 carried its first passengers on the line between Edgbaston Village and Wolverhampton Railway Station.

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