We’re back again with another “A-Z” of trams and it’s the letter T today.
T is for Tramlink by which we mean what was Croydon Tramlink and then became London Tramlink. Tramlink is the only modern tram system in London, and only runs in South London through central Croydon. There are routes to Wimbledon, New Addington, Beckenham Junction and New Addington and its unique in newly opened modern tram systems in that it has seen no extensions and there are now no plans on the horizon. May 2000 saw the network open with the line to New Addington first out of the blocks on 10th May, then the Beckenham Junction line opened on 23rd May and that between Wimbledon and Elmers End on 30th May. The network initially had a fleet of Bombardier built CR4000 trams to operate the service and they were joined by 12 Stadler Variobahns from 2012 onwards.
We’re at Arena here which is the junction stop between the Beckenham Junction and Elmers End lines and you can just see the junction in the background of this photo. The two trams – 2540 and 2537 – are still in the original red and white fleet livery (since replaced by the green, white and blue colours). 2540 is off to Beckenham Junction whilst 2537 has come from Elmers End. (Photograph by Gareth Prior, 10th October 2008)