It has now been over a month since trams were last able to run through to Halfway on Stagecoach Supertram with Beighton/Drake House Lane remaining a temporary terminus. Although it had been hoped that a full service would be able to resume by Friday 6th May, this has now proven not to be the case “due to further work arising”.
On the Stagecoach Supertram Twitter feed it says: “Due to further work arising, the Blue route will continue to operate to/from Beighton Drakehouse, including Friday 6th May. We do expect a full service to resume soon, and any updates will be posted on both our website and Twitter. Apologies if you are affected.”
This means that all trams from Malin Bridge continue to terminate at Beighton/Drake House Lane. Arriving at the usual Halfway bound platform trams then board passengers at that platform for the return journey with the tram regaining the correct track immediately after departure using the crossover – allowing passengers to travel over some rare track. (Although we expect the numbers who are pleased about that are rather outnumbered by those who would like to take the tram to Halfway!)
101 at Beighton/Drake House Lane with the way blocked by barriers.
101 then departs the stop and heads over the crossover.
119 arrives.
The points have to be manually changed.
119 departs from the stop with this on board shot showing it just heading over the crossover. (All Photographs by Stuart Cooke, 4th May 2022)