There are more trams running in standard fleet on two systems in England following the removal of more advertising vinyls. These changes have affected both Manchester Metrolink and Nottingham Express Transit.
The first change to report comes from Nottingham where 202 has now lost its vinyls for the Consent Coalition. This was the first of two trams to receive a promotional livery for this campaign with these vinyls being stuck on during March 2022. It was also the first time that this particular tram had run in anything other than fleet livery.
The night-time edition of the Consent Coalition livery on 201 currently remains in place.
Moving up and across to Manchester and 3023 is also now back in fleet livery – and has lost its double fleet numbers in the process!
3023 had last been advertising Co-Op Live arena which opened (after delays) earlier this year. As part of the opening offer there were special deals on travel on Metrolink as well. But now into late October and those vinyls have been removed.
The tram had been carrying double fleet numbers on the end following the application of an advert for Maybelline which saw some vinyls where the numbers are usually carried. When the advert was removed the strange position remained as well as the usual giving a bit of a strange look for the tram.
3023 has been in an advert livery for the best part of 14 months (except for small gaps in between). It started off with the Love Connects Everyone livery (August-September 2023), then a twice applied ad for Hamilton (September 2023-January 2024, although it was removed by mistake for a time in December 2023), followed by Maybelline (February-April 2024) and then Co-Op Live (April 2024-October 2024).
There have also been a couple of returns to service on the same two systems. In Nottingham 223 was back in service during mid-October having derailed in September following a RTC whilst Manchester Metrolink’s 3049 was back in service by late October having derailed on 13th September 2024 at Cornbrook.