A report on the https://insidecroydon.com/ Inside Croydon website has confirmed that the current tram shortages being suffered on the London Tramlink network have been caused by wheel damage with repairs taking longer than they should because of supply issues due to Brexit.
This isn’t the first time in recent months that wheel damage has led to trams having to be withdrawn (the start of June also saw problems) but this time the severity of the issue has seen the Elmers End service completely suspended for a week now. The New Addington line was also suspended for a couple of days earlier in the month and although working again the tram shortage means that there are large gaps in the service.
The report states that seven trams are completely off the road and awaiting repairs, but with the supply of spare parts proving challenging it is taking longer than it should to bring them back into use. Brexit is said to blame for this as the parts need to come from Europe and this is taking longer than it would have done before the UK left the EU.
The blame for this wheel damage – said to be unconnected to that at the start of June – is a foreign object on the tracks. This was found after engineers walked the route of the tramway with the metal object discovered on the tracks. It has now been removed but of course the damage has already been done.
Repairs to the affected trams are continuing at Therapia Lane Depot but this will take some time with delays to the service to remain in place until sufficient trams are available once again.
The blame for this wheel damage – said to be unconnected to that at the start of June – is a foreign object on the tracks.
So, let me get this right. There was a foreign object on the tracks. As a consequence seven trams are ‘off the road’. Surely the driver of first tram to have encountered this ‘foreign object’ would have notified someone because, if that object was enough to take the tram out of operation, then the driver would have been aware that something had fouled the wheel(s). Wouldn’t it have been prudent, then, to have sent inspectors out to examine the tracks, before any more trams fell foul of the foreign object.
Or is this just another excuse for TfL (and Sadiq Khan) to blame Brexit for its woes?
Wheel damage is often caused by an object stuck in the groove of the rail which leads to severe damage to the wheel flange. Drivers may not be aware of just how significant the damage is as they may pass varying sources of noise and vibration during a journey. Most of these are normally of no cause for concern but just occasionally flange damage is caused. This will be noticed by technicians during routine inspection and if severe enough it will lead to a fleet check.
Sherlock Holmes great great grandson Barratt has deduced that a Remoaner placed the offending metal object so Brexit could be blamed.Like it is for everything lol?
Brexit is not blamed for every thing! It is simply blamed for the economic disaster and shortages , both in supplies and labour, that it has caused. Walking away from the biggest Economic Union the world has ever known that is 20 miles away was the most idiotic decision a country has ever made. Their was no logical reason for Brexit other than for millionaires to avoid taxation on their offshore bank accounts, it was a con, even Farrage has admitted it has failed.
Please, this is not the place for this sort of tirade. I disagreee with you, but am not prepared to be involved in a slanging match! Let’s just enjoy trams aand tramways, wherever they might reside.
Oh dear, even this website has fallen foul to to remoanerisms! We had the vote, the people decided, get over it.
If it was a foreign object on the track, then perhaps it is as well we left the eu!
? ? ?
Good to see that people are still adopting deranged tribalism about this. There’s a simple fact there – damage to vehicles is being repaired less quickly because of a supply issue and the supply issue is a consequence of Brexit.
This is not an unusual occurence across the UK now – supply chains have been disrupted and it’s taking longer to get parts for almost everything.
People need to stop whingeing about “remoaners” and accept that there are facts. They might not like them, but they exist and they need to accept them.
The simple answer to all this is that the trams should have been built in BRITAIN, using BRITISH steel.
Are the wheels not hardened so the item in the tracks gets squashed rather than the wheel?
The fact is Tfl and Khan spend too much time being green and politically correct and not enough time learning about good old engineering. Let’s stick ’em in a time machine and send ’em back to the Blitz and see what sort of transport system they manage to run then! Forget about climate change, your job is to get a bum on a seat moved from point A to Point B as cheaply and quickly as possible.
Things happen – then everyone looks around for someone or something to blame. The only way to remedy it is to do something positive in the prevailing conditions. If nothing can be done then we must “dree our wyrd” (accept our fate).
Please note comments are now closed on this story. I’ve let it go for probably too long but if we can try and keep too much politics out of comments please (and I know some degree of politics will always creep in to some of the stories).