Article updated 18/8/23
Last night we brought you the news that strikes may be incoming on Nottingham Express Transit as a result of a pay dispute but today (17th August 2023) has seen services suspended in their entirety for a different reason as a communications fault has meant it has not been possible to run trams. This is the second communications fault suffered within the past month and comes a day before engineering works are due to get underway around The Forest.
Only basic information has been announced by NET with the first information revealed just after 0600 that a communications fault was preventing trams from running in service. With trams unable o be in contact with the control room it is not safe to operate a service and until the issue is resolved its not possible for passengers to be carried.
The disruption continued throughout the day on Thursday 17th August with no news of whether things would be able to resume as normal on Friday 18th August.
There were some tram moves in the evening of Thursday 17th, although these were not in passenger service. With track replacement work taking place at The Forest from Friday 18th (until Thursday 31st August) it was necessary to move trams away from the depot to allow the service from Old Market Square to Toton Lane and Clifton South to run when access to Wilkinson Street will not be maintained. But NET confirmed that it remained unsafe to carry passengers.
Services resumed from the start of service on Friday 18th August which also saw the commencement of the pre-planned engineering works at The Forest.
Nottingham Express Transit released a statement the following day about the communications failure: “We apologise for the disruption to our service yesterday. At 5am there was a communication failure with our radio system that allows our trams to communicate with the control room. This meant that it was not safe to run our service. Our engineers worked tirelessly throughout the day to establish the cause of the fault and to get our trams back up and running as quickly as possible.
“We are now investigating to try and understand what caused this failure, to ensure that this does not happen again. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Being able to offer a safe and reliable service is our priority and we are disappointed that we let you down yesterday.”
208 and 212 wait at Nottingham Station for permission to proceed. This didn’t happen and so they remained here for the rest of the day. (Photograph by Roland Bull, 17th August 2023)