In Picture: Testing to Edgbaston Village continues

Posted on Thursday 7 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

As mentioned earlier this week testing/driver familiarisation is now underway on the West Midlands Metro extension to Edgbaston Village ahead of a start of public services at some point in the near future (and hoped to be before the Commonwealth Games get underway on 28th July). One tram a day is being used for these tests with the tram being used to run between Library and Edgbaston Village on several occasions.

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Tram Sunday is back and Heritage Tram Tours will come to the party!

Posted on Thursday 7 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

After an absence of two years Fleetwood Tram Sunday – or the Fleetwood Transport Festival if you prefer – is back on Sunday 17th July and although the event has evolved a lot since that first one back in 1985, Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours will be putting the tram into the event with static displays as well as special tours both on the day and the day before for those who want to make a weekend of it.

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Rail replacement work coming to NET from end of July

Posted on Thursday 7 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

As had become traditional during the summer school holidays there will be rail replacement works taking place on Nottingham Express Transit which will lead to part of the network being closed and replacement buses put on. The work this time will centre around Hyson Green Market and will be taking place between Wednesday 27th July and Sunday 7th August.

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In Pictures: Work underway for new tram depot at Carlton Colville

Posted on Wednesday 6 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

There is no doubt these are exciting times for the East Anglia Transport Museum. If we’re not reporting on new acquisitions or looking at current members of the collection we’re featuring work on expanding the site and it’s the last of these that we feature this time around.

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Tram extension to Port Erin?!

Posted on Wednesday 6 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

There has regularly been talk on the Isle of Man of extending the Manx Electric Railway along the horse tram tracks in Douglas but what about a major extension all the way to Port Erin?! If a sign in the town – which is the southern terminus of the Isle of Man Steam Railway – is to be believed its already happened!

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Birmingham Eastside extension progresses with building demolition

Posted on Wednesday 6 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

The Birmingham Eastside extension, one of four new lines currently being built on the West Midlands Metro, has recently seen more good progress with a derelict college building in Digbeth being demolished. The building has been removed to allow trams to turn from Meriden Street to Digbeth High Street and is a key part of the preparation works ahead of the start of tracklaying later this year.

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In Pictures: Testing comes to an end in Blackpool for now

Posted on Tuesday 5 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

It was planned to take place on five days and it did take place on five days, although they may not have been the five days that had been originally intended, and now the first period of daylight testing on the Blackpool Tramway extension to North Station is over. Testing resumed on Monday 4th July and concluded on Tuesday 5th July with three trams and then four trams used respectively.

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Trams start testing to Edgbaston Village

Posted on Tuesday 5 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Its been a day of tram testing – whilst in Blackpool its been the last day of testing on the North Station extension (more on that in the next article) down on the West Midlands Metro it was the first day of testing to Edgbaston Village.

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Light rail operators look at ways of tackling anti-social behaviour

Posted on Tuesday 5 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Light rail operators across the UK and Ireland are getting together to look at ways to tackle the increase in anti social behaviour seen across the countries since the lifting of Covid restrictions.

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In Pictures: Heaton Park Tramway have a Tramtastic day

Posted on Monday 4 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Four trams in service and stored trams on display were amongst the highlights of the Heaton Park Tramway’s Tramtastic event which took place over the weekend of Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July. Although a two day event this report takes a look at what happened on the first day – Saturday 2nd July 2022.

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Trams start running at Crich again!

Posted on Monday 4 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

As promised, Saturday 2nd July was a good day for the Crich Tramway Village as after a little over six weeks trams started running once more! Both days of the first weekend back saw a standard three tram service in operation – including the first use of an open balcony car for 2022!

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Out and About: Trams around St Andrew Square in Edinburgh

Posted on Monday 4 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

“Out and About” returns today as we take a trip to St Andrew Square in Edinburgh – the current city centre terminus of the Edinburgh Trams system – to see some of the trams in service.

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Trams &: Gateshead 10 & Foden Steam Tractor

Posted on Sunday 3 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

In this edition of “Trams &” we take a trip into the Town at Beamish where Gateshead 10 is pulling up to the stop and finds a steam lorry alongside.

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New tram into service and new advert on another

Posted on Sunday 3 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

There’s another couple of changes to the status of the Manchester Metrolink fleet to report on. First off we have seen another of the new batch of M5000s to enter service whilst there is also a new advert now applied to one of the earlier trams.

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Nottingham tram becomes film studio for school pupils

Posted on Sunday 3 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Pupils from Beeston Fields Primary & Nursey School recently got the chance to use a tram on Nottingham Express Transit to film a video which will be shown at the forthcoming Flying High Trust Awards at the Motorpoint Arena in July. A tram was made available at Toton Lane terminus for the school to complete the filming, the results of which will be unveiled at the Awards.

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In Pictures: Blackpool North extension testing hits a snag

Posted on Saturday 2 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

We saw earlier in the week the start of daytime testing on the Blackpool Tramway extension to the North Station terminus with the promise at that point of a full week of testing. But as we all know things don’t always go according to plan and after the first two days seemed to go well the testing has rather stalled since with two days completely cancelled and the other seeing a much reduced output.

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Around the World in Trams: Lviv Works Car 2

Posted on Saturday 2 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Its not all about the passenger trams as in this latest instalment of “Around the World in Trams” we take a look at a tram which was, at this point, a works car.

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Still no long-term funding agreement for TfL

Posted on Saturday 2 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

The continued political games between the Department for Transport and Transport for London shows no signs of coming to an end with yet another short-term funding agreement announced – this one truly is short-term as its only a 19 day extension. The new funding settlement will now expire on 13th July 2022.

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Edinburgh Trams name their charity of the year

Posted on Saturday 2 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Edinburgh Trams will be supporting the Breast Friends and Family charity for the next 12 months in memory of a former senior tram driver who lost her brave battle against breast cancer last June. Evelyn Kiernan is being remembered by former colleagues and they will now support the charity that helps cancer patients and their families.

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Overhead problems return to West Midlands Metro

Posted on Friday 1 July 2022 by Gareth Prior

Back in the day (well, around 2019), the biggest problems to impact services on the West Midlands Metro were overhead line problems with relatively frequent issues seeing the service having to be suspended. Into 2022 and there have been far bigger problems for the West Midlands Metro with the entire fleet of Urbos3s having to be withdrawn for repairs. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still infrastructure issues, as seen on Friday 1st July with a problem with the overhead at Hill Top Tunnel.

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