In Pictures: Wirral Bus and Tram Show draws the crowds

Posted on Wednesday 9 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

The fickle British weather really can make and break any transport event – if the sun shines lots of people will make the trip but if the rain falls then numbers are down. Over the past few weeks we have seen sun and rain at tram events with the latest of the quickly occurring trio of events – the Wirral Bus and Tram Show taking place on Sunday 6th October fortunately seeing plenty of sun – and some less than sunny weather! – leading to a large number of visitors – and plenty on offer with six different trams in service at times during the day as well as lots of buses, classic cars and so much more!

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Posted in Birkenhead Heritage Tramway, Event Reviews | 1 Comment

Power fault traps trains in depot

Posted on Wednesday 9 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Wednesday 9th October was a day which didn’t start out too well on the Tyne and Wear Metro with a power fault at South Gosforth Depot meaning it wasn’t possible to get enough trains out quicker enough to provide the full peak time service. Whilst it was possible for trains to leave they had to go by an alternative route which reduced the numbers which could leave in order for the usual service to operate.

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In Pictures: An out of season weekday at Crich

Posted on Wednesday 9 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Now that the excitement of Crich 60 is out the way and we build up towards the end of season and the Starlight Event it is business as usual at the Crich Tramway Village with most days seeing either a two or three tram service, plenty for the number of visitors making the trip – mainly retired people, grandparents and young parents entertaining small children when bigger siblings may be at school. One such time was Friday 4th October when a two tram service was running featuring Leeds 345 and Blackpool 630. David Maxwell made the trip.

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21 more Urbos trams for West Midlands Metro

Posted on Tuesday 8 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Transport for West Midlands have confirmed that they have signed a contract with CAF to supply an additional 21 Urbos trams for the West Midlands Metro, with the option for a further 29 trams dependent on progress on expanding the system. The £83.5 million deal was signed after a tendering process with Alstom, Bombardier and Skoda also being considered.

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More peak time trains for Tyne and Wear Metro

Posted on Tuesday 8 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

A new timetable is to be introduced on the Tyne and Wear Metro from Sunday 13th October with additional peak time trains to run as a result of passenger feedback. The new timetable will see a reduction in gaps between early morning services from South Shields and afternoon services through North Tyneside.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Centenary 648

Posted on Tuesday 8 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Staying in 1990 for this week’s Picture in Time image from Blackpool we feature another one person operated tram but this time of the second generation of vehicles – Centenary 648.

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Docklands Light Railway scoops Operator of the Year at the Light Rail Awards

Posted on Monday 7 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

The annual Global Light Rail Awards took place in London on 2nd October 2019 with the Docklands Light Railway – or more specifically Keolis Amey Docklands – being named as Operator of the Year with other award winners coming from diverse locations such as Nottingham Express Transit, South Yorkshire Supertram, West Midlands Metro and Newcastle, New South Wales. As always it seems many of the award winners are a little shy about their wins but at least this year a full list of winners has been posted online so we do know exactly who walked away with the awards.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Docklands Light Railway, Edinburgh Trams, London Trams, Manchester Metrolink, West Midlands Metro | Comments Off on Docklands Light Railway scoops Operator of the Year at the Light Rail Awards

New tickets introduced on Edinburgh Trams

Posted on Monday 7 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Two new mobile tickets are to be introduced on Edinburgh Trams – cutting the cost of travel for families to the Airport whilst also seeing a three, four or five day unlimited ticket across the network. These new tickets will be available exclusively online with passengers just needing to show their ticket on their mobile device.

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In Pictures: Sunderland 16 in action at Beamish

Posted on Monday 7 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Now we are firmly in the autumn season it is a bit of the calm before the storm for many heritage tramways with schools firmly back and before the busy October Half Term period and then Christmas – a period when places such as Beamish really come alive once more. With the quieter period at Beamish the number of trams in service during the week is lower with normally just a two tram service sufficing, one such day was Thursday 3rd October when Sunderland 16 (clockwise) and Blackpool 31 (anti clockwise) were operating as seen in the below photo from Trevor Hall.

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Around the World in Trams: Grenoble 2023

Posted on Sunday 6 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

This week our trip overseas lands in the south eastern French city of Grenoble for a view of one of their trams.

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Supertram fare increases on the way

Posted on Sunday 6 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

There will be increases to some fares on Stagecoach Supertram from Sunday 13th October – only affecting single and return tickets with dayriders remaining unchanged. Stacgecoach have said they have made the changes as a result of a review of fares.

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In Pictures: Metrolink 3061 receives Babyliss advert

Posted on Sunday 6 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

The uninspiring advert designs on Manchester Metrolink continue – 3061 has received an ad for Babyliss with a grey/white base colour, not too dissimilar to the standard Metrolink colours! The advert was first noted in service in late September and features full contravision on most windows along with the slogan “A new era in hairstyling” (pity that doesn’t extend to an inspiring all over advert!) and some models looking very pleased with their hair no doubt helped by those Babyliss hair care products! An added issue with the advert is that standard white fleet numbers feature on the side of the tram meaning the “61” gets rather lost within the advert.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 6 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

After a slightly longer than planned hiatus we are back with another Photo Gallery this week:

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Posted in National Tramway Museum, Picture in Time | 2 Comments

In Pictures: Heaton Park Tramway Overhead Line Damage

Posted on Saturday 5 October 2019 by admin

As was reported in the news pages on 24th September and 1st October the Heaton Park Tramway suffered what could have been a devastating blow when a section of overhead wire was stolen overnight on 23rd/24th September. However in a fantastic show of community spirit once the news of the theft of a length of contact wire and damage to the tramway on 23rd/24th September became known at TfGM it started a process which culminated in TfGM, Keolis Amey Metrolink and Pod-Trak a specialist transport engineering company with a base in Eccles coming together to assemble the resources and material to repair the damage as quickly as possible. What follows is a report from the scene from Steve Hyde showing the commendable efforts which has allowed the wire to be put back up in double quick time.

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Posted in Heaton Park Tramway | 2 Comments

Picture in Time: Docklands Light Railway 40+97

Posted on Saturday 5 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Back to the DLR for this edition of Picture in Time and we are heading back 14 years to 2005.

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Half price travel for locals on Great Orme Tramway

Posted on Saturday 5 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

For the first time, the Great Orme Tramway will be a holding a community weekend during October which will give local residents the chance to enjoy travel up the Great Orme for half price. Taking place on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October all residents of Conwy county will be able to travel for £4.05 (adults) and £2.80 for children (3-15) with proof of residency required such as a driving licence or utility bill. This is a rare opportunity for locals to get cut price return travel on the line, so if you fall into the area why not go along to head up the Great Orme?

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In Pictures: FTS Triple Tram Illumination Tour

Posted on Friday 4 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

It was a tour which should have provided the first chance to ride on Standard 143 but turned out to be a tour which utilised three different trams (sort of) as the evening took many different twists and turns! Returning after a number of years the Fylde Tramway Society’s Illumination Tour was due to set off from North Pier/Tower at 1800 for a trip to Fleetwood, back to Pleasure Beach and then to Fisherman’s Walk and back through the illuminations to North Pier/Tower but in the event it ended up being very different to that!

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Fylde Tramway Society | 1 Comment

Nottingham Express Transit stars on CBeebies

Posted on Friday 4 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

It is often that you see trams playing a starring role on television but a recent episode of CBeebies’ popular show Maddie Do You Know featured a brief segment on Nottingham Express Transit. It would appear that the whole premise of the show is to explain to children how things work and this episode included not only how trams work but also all about maps.

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A soggy September Spectacular in Blackpool

Posted on Thursday 3 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

What’s that saying about the best laid plans? Well, that is exactly how the organisers of the September Spectacular must have felt with very heavy rain at times and of the three trams due to return to service over the weekend, none managed it thanks to various technical issues. But despite these issues there were 16 different heritage trams which ran over the weekend which included the rare use of all three illuminated feature cars during the day with two of them heading to Fleetwood.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Event Reviews | 10 Comments

In Pictures: Magenta clinging on in the West Midlands

Posted on Thursday 3 October 2019 by Gareth Prior

Just when you thought you had seen the last magenta tram actually running on the West Midlands Metro then 37 comes along with a replacement front wing – still in the old fleet livery! It is likely that 37 has bene one of a number of trams to be involved in RTCs recently which caused damage to its front wing which necessitated its replacement. As with all modern trams the construction of the panelling is such that when it does receive damage it can be just taken out and replaced with a spare and that is exactly what has happened in this case; although it would seem that as yet the re-vinyling hasn’t extended to these spares!

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