Conceived as a bit of fun at the end of the year the British Trams Online Tram of the Year originally sought to find the tramcar which had done something "special" over the previous 12 months. There has never been a full definition of what "special" actually means in this case but over the years tramcars which have won have had a repaint, entered service after a repaint or gone on loan away from their home tramway to name but there examples.

In 2012 the contest was expanded to include two new categories - Event of the Year and Tramway of the Year - and then in 2014 a fourth category was voted for the first time - Light Rail Vehicle of the Year.

At the end of November each year nominations are opened for a week to allow anyone to put forward suggestions for each of the categories before our "expert panel" (which is probably neither expert nor a panel!) convene to make a decision of what should be on the final shortlist, with each category normally having around five items to vote on. Voting takes place for approximately six weeks from the start of December until mid January and we then name the lucky winners.

Voting is over, votes have been checked with multiple votes removed and we have our winners of the British Trams Online Tram of the Year 2022 contest! In truth it hasn’t been a close contest with winners in all four categories getting roughly 50% of the total vote but at the end of voting we can congratulate Manx Electric Railway 2, Manchester Metrolink 1023, the Crich Tramway Village and the Winter Manx Heritage Transport Festival on winning the accolades for this year!

The original and main award, “Tram (Traditional) of the Year” saw a total of 320 votes for the three nominated trams and Manx Electric Railway 2 received over 56% of the total vote to be crowned for 2021. 2 had returned to service on the Manx Electric Railway during the summer after a stunning repaint into a coat of its original 1893 Douglas & Laxey Coast Electric Railway maroon and ivory livery and this new look was enough to persuade you that it deserved to become the third MER vehicle to walk away with the award in the past four years! 2 beat off competition from Blackpool Balloon 723 and Amsterdam 474 to win this category.

The ”Tram (Modern) of the Year” was a vehicle which hasn’t turned a wheel in service for many years but Manchester Metrolink T68 1023 received almost 53% of the total votes to become the fifth (and a half!) tram from Metrolink to win this category. Although it was moved across to the Crewe Heritage Centre during 2020, because of the pandemic it didn’t actually go on public display until 2021 and with volunteers from the Manchester Transport Museum Society giving it some much needed TLC its starting to look its best again. In winning this award, 1023 has shown the new kids on the block on Metrolink that older is better for those of you who vote as it beat 3121 into third place whilst Stagecoach Supertram 112 was just in second (only one vote separated second and third).

With no modern tram system being shortlisted for “Tramway of the Year” it was a battle between heritage tramways this year and in the end the Crich Tramway Village came out on top defeating reigning champion the Seaton Tramway into second and the East Anglia Transport Museum in third. Although 2021 was still not a normal year for Crich, the flexibility shown during the year of commissioning additional trams for service to meet the ever evolving demands plus the good progress being seen in the Workshop on projects for the immediate and longer term future was enough to allow it to win the award for the first since 2014.

Lastly, and by no means least!, was the “Event of the Year” category with a new event taking the honours. The Winter Manx Heritage Transport Festival took place during the autumn over five days in October and gave all the usual events including parallel runs, behind the scenes tours and intensive services. Whilst not exclusively a tram event, the Manx Electric Railway featured heavily during the five days and there were enough of you who felt it was deserving of the accolade with just below 51% of the vote. Blackpool Tramway’s Anniversary Weekend was second and Crich’s Tram Day came in third.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote and congratulations to both the winners and those who were shortlisted in each category. Tram of the Year will be back at the end of this year – and who knows there may be a bit more to consider next time around!