There were problems for Nottingham Express Transit on Thursday 17th December after a RTC on Chilwell Road which saw trams on the Beeston and Chilwell line partly suspended from around 1430 through until the end of service. Then to compound matters with an attempt being made to run a truncated service on the section through to Toton Lane a tram derailed on the crossover between Cator Lane and Bramcote Lane.
The problems started when a car and cyclist collided on Chilwell Road shortly after 1430 which saw the road closed for six hours whilst the emergency services were on the scene. The cyclist was trapped under the car and was then taken to hospital with non life threatening injuries. The car was later taken from the scene by tow truck.
With trams unable to run all the way from Toton Lane into the city centre Nottingham Express Transit attempted to run a shortened service using the crossover located between Cator Lane and Bramcote Lane. Unfortunately during the evening there was a minor derailment here involving one of the Citadis trams. Or as a spokesman from NET put it “wheels on the central bogie disengaged from a section of track” – there’s nothing like plain English is there!
Following this derailment no trams were able to run between Beeston and Toton Lane for the remainder of the day with a replacement bus service in operation instead. Normal services resumed from the start of service on Friday 18th December.