Services on the central Croydon loop of London Tramlink are suspended until Thursday 16th February to allow upgrade works on the track to take place (the work commenced from the start of service on Saturday 11th February). Transport for London have said that this work will help provide a more comfortable journey on a more reliable service.
Two hundred metres of track will be replaced with the main work site being on Crown
Hill. Work will also be undertaken at the junction of Wellesley Road and George Street and near to West Croydon bus station. During the works George Street West will be closed to all vehicles before reopening on Friday 17th February.
Sharon Thompson, who is the Interim Director of London Tramlink, said: “This is necessary maintenance and upgrade work which needs to be done as it means a more reliable service for passengers as well as less wear and tear on our trams. We will keep inconvenience to passengers and businesses along the route to a minimum and complete the works as quickly as possible.”
During the work all trams from Wimbledon will terminate at Reeves Corner with services
from New Addington, Beckenham Junction and Elmers End running as far as East Croydon. As is normal for Tramlink when the central Croydon loop is suspended for long term engineering work trams will be out stationed on the eastern side of the network with Sandilands tunnel and the Elmers End branch being used. As a result services to Elmers End will not run early mornings, late evenings or on Sundays.
Unfortunately on the first day of the works a number of faulty trams on the eastern side –
Therapia Lane Depot is of course on the western side of Croydon – meant that a Sunday service had to be operated for a time between East Croydon and Beckenham Junction/New Addington with no trams serving Elmers End.
In other news from Tramlink it has been suggested that the second Variotram – numbered 2555 – is due to be delivered to Croydon late on Monday 27th February. This would be the second of the six ordered to arrive. The first – 2554 – has been reported as making at least appearance on the Tramlink network in January – this was an after hours test/acceptance run and the reports suggest it was towed onto the system by one of the original Bombardier trams.