Severe problems with the availability of the Stadler built Variotrams has seen disruption to the line 4 service this week with at one stage all six being unavailable for service. It is now approaching one year since the first of the Variotrams arrived in Croydon and it had been hoped that the reliability problems which had affected them at the start had been ironed out but it would appear that this is not the case.
It is not known why all of the Variotrams had to be withdrawn from service for a time but with the intensive timetable in operation with the four services now running it led to severe disruption for the additional line 4 which was introduced last year after the Variotrams had been fully commissioned. With all six being out of service at once it was decided to completely abandon line 4 rather than leave huge gaps in the service.
The problems affected services on several days with line 4 suspended completely for a time on Wednesday 9th January. After the apparent problems were sorted on the Variotrams a normal service on line 4 was resumed fully on Thursday 10th January.