This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 15 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Two more Photo Galleries for you this week including a British Trams Online debut:

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West Midlands Metro extensions approach next stage of construction

Posted on Saturday 14 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Currently of all the tram systems in the UK the one which is about to undergo the biggest expansion is West Midlands Metro with work underway on two lines – and more to come in the forthcoming years – at each end of the current system between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. These two extensions – Wolverhampton City Centre and Birmingham Westside – are now approaching their latest phases which will see new road closures for other traffic.

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Picture in Time: Great Orme Tramway

Posted on Saturday 14 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Today we take a trip to North Wales for a couple of different than usual images from the Great Orme Tramway.

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Safety warning in Manchester over tram surfing incidents

Posted on Saturday 14 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

“Tram surfing” – where people hang on the back of trams or in some cases on the couplers between two trams – is an activity which has been popular with youths across the UK for a long time. But after a high profile spate of incidents in Manchester – and covered in the Manchester Evening News – an urgent safety warning has been issued about how dangerous this can be.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 2 Comments

Ratchet Car 14 makes its first moves on the mainline

Posted on Friday 13 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

For just over three years Ratchet Car 14 has been enjoying a major restoration jointly done by paid staff from Isle of Man Railways and volunteers and now the culmination of the project is rapidly approaching with the tram making its first tentative moves onto the mainline ahead of the commencement of the testing and commissioning period.

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In Pictures: First track laid on Blackpool North Station extension

Posted on Friday 13 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

A major milestone has been reached in the project to extend the Blackpool Tramway up Talbot Road to Blackpool North Railway Station – the first new rails have been laid as the project continue to make progress with Blackpool Council also this week confirming the extension is on target with all track due to be in place by February 2019.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 2 Comments

In Pictures: Track laying in Wolverhampton

Posted on Thursday 12 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

We reported a few days ago about the start of tracklaying in Wolverhampton City Centre for the extension of West Midlands Metro and now we can bring you photos of the latest progress on this work. This is just one of several stages of work on the extension and although this will be completed later this summer the whole line won’t be available for trams to run until 2020 with work on the redevelopment around the Railway Station delayed. Gregor Baddeley with the images.

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Balloon cars to dominate Fleetwood Tram Sunday

Posted on Thursday 12 July 2018 by Andrew Waddington

The annual Fleetwood Festival of Transport – more commonly known as Tram Sunday – takes place this year on Sunday 15th July, and as usual Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours will be providing a bumper service between Pleasure Beach and Fisherman’s Walk (Ash Street Fleetwood) for the duration of the event. To provide the maximum possible capacity for what is often a very busy event, the Balloon cars feature heavily but a few other trams will also be appearing.

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Around the World in Trams: Bendigo Trams 610

Posted on Thursday 12 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

We are going down under for this edition of our world trip of trams with a visit to Bendigo in Australia.

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In Preview: Manx Heritage Transport Festival 2018

Posted on Wednesday 11 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

For obvious reasons a lot of attention has gone towards the September events for the 125th Anniversary of the Manx Electric Railway this year but let’s not forget that the annual Manx Heritage Transport Festival also takes place with the dates this year being 25th to 29th July. With the MER celebrating such a major milestone it will feature heavily throughout all five days of the event along with the other railways and tramways on the island.

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More overhead woes on West Midlands Metro

Posted on Wednesday 11 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Copy and paste here…Well, that is exactly how it feels at the moment as there have been more problems with the overhead of the West Midlands Metro today (Wednesday 11th July) causing yet more issues for regular and irregular travellers alike. This latest issue reared its head at the same location as just a day previously with services disrupted for several hours before a temporary fix was put in place.

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In Pictures: Adverts complete in Edinburgh

Posted on Tuesday 10 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

It was obviously only going to be a matter of time but all 27 trams in Edinburgh now have external adverts in the standard pattern of full height vinyls of the third and fifth section and above window ads on the remainder of the tram. The last to succumb is 264 which has received an advert for Edinburgh Park and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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‘Princess Alice’ appeal goes online!

Posted on Tuesday 10 July 2018 by Andrew Waddington

Following a number of requests, the Fylde Tramway Society have today launched an online platform to raise money for its recently announced ‘Princess Alice’ 706 Restoration Appeal. Fans of this iconic Blackpool tram can now donate towards the appeal at https://www.gofundme.com/039princess-alice039-706-appeal

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Repairs completed as normal service is resumed

Posted on Tuesday 10 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Normal service was finally resumed on West Midlands Metro shortly after 1800 on Tuesday 10th July following the completion of repairs to the overhead just to the north of Winson Green Outer Circle stop. As we reported yesterday a fault was discovered with the overhead around lunchtime with services then disrupted as the problems was first investigated before repairs were undertaken.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 1 Comment

Picture in Time: Docklands Light Railway 02+14

Posted on Tuesday 10 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Our archive photo series continues today with a trip to London’s Docklands for a picture on the DLR in 2004.

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Strike starts in Sheffield after revised pay offer refused

Posted on Monday 9 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

A severely reduced service has run on Stagecoach Supertram on Monday 9th July with the first of a series of days of strike action taking place over the latest pay offer to drivers and conductors. Showing their usual disregard for the travelling public the Unite union has also announced further days of action during the popular Tramlines festival later in July.

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Posted in South Yorkshire Supertram | 3 Comments

Frequent heritage trams to Fleetwood on 14th July

Posted on Monday 9 July 2018 by Andrew Waddington

The day before the annual Fleetwood Tram Sunday event was a big highlight of 2017 for fans of Blackpool’s heritage tram service, with an intensive heritage service to Fleetwood in operation – and this is set to be repeated, even bigger and better, for 2018! This month also marks the 120th anniversary of trams running to Fleetwood, and although no specific events have been arranged, this is being reflected in the day’s output.

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It’s happened again – more overhead problems on West Midlands Metro

Posted on Monday 9 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

Long suffering commuters on West Midlands Metro are having to change trams once again to complete their journeys with yet more overhead line problems. The issue has again happened close to Handsworth Booth Street, although it isn’t known whether this is the same problem as last week – which is believed to have only had a temporary repair – or in a new location.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 1 Comment

In Pictures: Trams get ready for service at Seaton

Posted on Sunday 8 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

An aspect of operations at the Seaton Tramway we rarely feature is at the start of the day as the trams are prepared for service and shunted out of Riverside Depot, until now that is! On Tuesday 29th May Keith Chadbourne was getting ready to take the first service tram out and captured the below images for us.

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Finnish trams not yet finished!

Posted on Sunday 8 July 2018 by Gareth Prior

We don’t often report on news from overseas tramways but this story caught our eye as the Helsinki transport authority is offering up some of its historic trams for free! There are several catches, however!

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