On Thursday 1st August, Blackpool Flexity 007 made a welcome return to service following an absence of several weeks. This tram had been involved in a collision with a road vehicle during June, and this was believed to have been its first appearance in service since the incident.
A panel at one end of 007 has been replaced and the appropriate decals have not yet been re-applied, leaving the tram numbered ’00’ at the affected end! Hopefully this will be attended to soon; however for the moment the most important fact is that the tram is back in traffic, and the full quota of sixteen Flexities are now operational once more. Following reports of heavy loading on the trams since the start of the school summer holidays, this is particularly welcome and 007‘s return will provide a useful boost to the fleet.
Another Flexity2 with unusual numbers is 011.
For the last few days one end panel is numbered ’00’.
She’s back on field work, on her majesty’s passenger service!
More problems with the flexitys this year than the heritage trams
I have qnd always will think the heritage is better
Still need more old heritage possibly ask tram owners or bring back the two stricken century trams
I think its to be expected that there have been more problems with the Flexity trams – simply because they run all day every day! Heritage trams have so far only run on 12 days this year (excluding private hires, testing and training runs) so it’s very unfair to compare the two. If your latter comment refers to the Centenary cars as I suspect, Blackpool Transport has kept two of these, and its worth noting that 642 failed on its only day in service in 2013 up to now.
In miles run per breakdown, the Flexities are probably the most reliable trams in the UK!
I reckon only the Sheffield cars come close, and they certainly out perform anything that ran in Blackpool in 2010 & 2011…
Breakdowns get reported and analysed because they are so unusual…