It has been confirmed that the new London Tramlink timetable will start operation from Sunday 25th February – the third revised timetable on a UK tramway in under a month. This new timetable is being introduced to “provide a more regular service with even spacing between trams, reducing passenger crowding”.
The new timetable will see a changed service pattern with services no longer running direct between Wimbledon and New Addington (except for the first two trams in the morning from New Addington). Passengers travelling between the two lines will now need to change within central Croydon but TfL state that this will only affect 1 in 30 passengers.
The new service pattern will be:
Wimbledon to Beckenham Junction
Wimbledon to Elmers End
New Addington to West Croydon
Route numbers will no longer be displayed on the trams – a change which has already started with all CR4000s already only displaying destinations – allowing a larger and clearer final destination to be shown on the trams for ease of use by passengers.
Trams will run on the Wimbledon branch every five minutes, running alternately to Beckenham Junction and Elmers End which will give those two branches a tram every 10 minutes. The New Addington route will be served every 7-8 minutes, although it remains a long term aspiration to increase the frequency.
Rory O’Neill, TfL General Manager of London Trams, said: “’We have discussed these changes extensively with our customers and concluded that the new timetable will benefit the vast majority of tram users, ensuring services are more regular and less crowded. We appreciate it may take time for customers to adapt, but feel these timetable changes are essential to ensure London Trams continues to support future growth in the area it serves. We have a long-term plan to improve the tram network and adjusting the timetable is just our first step, which we will keep under review to make sure it is delivering the expected benefits for customers.”
As well as these changes there will be extra early morning services on the New Addington branch, extra evening services on the Beckenham Junction and Elmers End lines and extra services both early morning and in the evening to Wimbledon.
TfL claim that this new timetable will see crowding reduced by a third on the Wimbledon line with waiting times reduced by 14%. On the East Croydon-Addiscombe-Arena section waiting times will reduce by 13% because of the more even split of trams.