A temporarily revised timetable is to be introduced on Nottingham Express Transit from Monday 10th March to “maintain reliability during essential works on both trams and track ahead of the introduction of increased services later in the year”. The revised service will see Monday-Saturday daytime frequencies of every 12 minutes between both Station Street and Hucknall and from Station Street to Phoenix Park, combining to give a frequency of every 6 minutes between Station Street and Highbury Vale.
Over the next four months the existing fleet of Incentro trams will have to be taken out of service one by one to be equipped with state of the art signalling and communications equipment whilst the existing Line One track will be connected to the Phase Two lines at Station Street meaning that only one tram at a time will be able to access the current terminus.
Lea Harrison, Tramlink Nottingham’s Head of Service Delivery, said: “Trams will be taken out of service one at a time for the fitting of high-tech equipment that will enable them to communicate with the new advanced signalling system we are introducing as part of the network’s expansion. Alongside the upgrade of the current fleet, our new Alstom Citadis trams are completing their intensive testing on the network before they can be used for passenger services. All this work has been carefully co-ordinated to minimise disruption to our customers and is required at this time to enable us to introduce an increased timetable later in the year. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to thank our customers for bearing with us during this upgrade work. Customers are advised to check our passenger information displays and on-tram leaflets for further details about the temporary changes.”
Meanwhile deliveries of the new Alstom Citadis trams are continuing with nine of the class now in Nottingham with the tenth due to arrive sometime this week. The trams continue to be tested during the confines of the depot during daylight hours ahead of a full programme of mainline testing and driver training which should commence sometime this spring. The first examples will then be able to enter service during late Spring/early Summer on the current route before the Phase Two extensions open to the public in December 2014.
Work is continuing at Station Street on connecting the Line One and Phase Two tracks which means that only one platform at a time is available for use. In this 6th February view 209 is seen waiting departure.
A view across the Karlsruhe Friendship Bridge where in a little over nine months time trams will be running in passenger service. (Both photos: David Beardsell)