Funding secured for Curzon Midland Metro stop

Posted on Thursday 28 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

The proposed Midland Metro stop at the Birmingham Curzon HS2 railway station has moved a step forward with the news that a £27.5 million funding package has been secured. This stop will integrate the proposed HS2 station into the city centre and improve connectivity to Digbeth.

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RAIB report into door trap incident on DLR released

Posted on Thursday 28 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

The latest full report to be released by the RAIB is in respect of an incident on 6th February 2017 when a woman got part of her coat trapped in a door on the Docklands Light Railway at Bank Station.

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NET to operate revised service for Goose Fair

Posted on Thursday 28 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

A revised service will operate on Nottingham Express Transit during the Goose Fair which takes place at The Forest Recreation Ground in early October with a handy tramstop located right next to the event. Revised services will be run to cope with the extra demand during the event.

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Event Review: Blackpool Anniversary Spectacular – Saturday 23rd September

Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

Having quickly established itself as one of the premier tram events in the British Isles the Blackpool Tramway Anniversary Spectacular took place over the weekend of 23rd and 24th September (plus an afternoon of Brush Car action during the previous afternoon as already reported on). With 2017 seeing the 80th anniversary of the Brush Railcoaches they understandably took centre stage during the weekend including two loanee trams and one returning to service for first time since 2004. The following review looks at the first day of the event – Saturday 23rd September.

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In Pictures: Rotherham Central tram-train construction

Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

As we continue to limp towards a start of the tram-train pilot between Sheffield and Rotherham (currently pencilled in for opening at some point in 2018) work is progressing at various locations on construction. One such location is Rotherham Central railway station where current work has been progressing on the low-level platform required for the tram-trains. This pictorial update shows recent work, photographs courtesy of Mike Haddon.

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Shortlist unveiled for 2017 Global Light Rail Awards

Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

Tramways from across the British Isles are up for awards at the 2017 Global Light Rail Awards with the winners due to be named at a glittering ceremony on 4th October in London.

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RAIB release report into Supertram pedestrian fatality

Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

On 22nd December 2016 a pedestrian, who had just alighted from a tram at Woodbourn Road, was struck by a tram in Sheffield tragically suffering fatal injuries as a result. Following a 9 month investigation the RAIB have now released their report into the incident, including recommendations on how to try and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future across the UK’s tram systems.

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Picture in Time: Wootton Electric Tramway

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

A bit of a change with today’s edition of Picture in Time as we head down in scale for a view of the portable Wootton Electric Tramway.

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In Pictures: Urbos 3 18 returns – with batteries now included!

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

Friday 22nd September saw the return to Midland Metro of Urbos 3 18 complete with batteries installed on the roof. This is the first of the trams to be fitted with batteries in preparation for forthcoming sections of line which will be constructed without overhead.

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In Pictures: 277 gains C R Smith vinyls

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

The C R Smith advertising vinyls have continued their takeover of Edinburgh Trams with 277 the latest tram to receive its own unique version. This time around the locations are from Lochmaben to Dunfermline with Robert the Bruce the connection here.

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In Pictures: 26 leaves for repairs – Part Two!

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

The second half of Midland Metro’s Urbos 3 26 departed Wednesbury Depot for Wolverton Works on Thursday 21st September where it will be reunited with its other half for repair work to take place. The tram had derailed at the depot back in the summer with the damage severe enough to require it to be sent away for repairs.

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Outline business case approved for Edinburgh Trams extension

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

As expected the City of Edinburgh Council have approved the Outline Business Case to extend the trams down Leith Walk and to Newhaven, although a final decision on whether to go-ahead with the project will not be made until autumn 2018. What the approval does mean though is that a comprehensive tendering process can be started to find potential contractors for the extension.

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Metrolink fare increases set to phased over three years

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

In probably one of the least surprising pieces of news we have reported on recently Manchester Metrolink fares look set to see a phased increase over three years rather than a single large increase in January 2018. You may remember that earlier this year a public consultation was undertaken by Transport for Greater Manchester asking Metrolink travellers for their opinions on how the fares should go up and unsurprisingly the majority of respondents have plumped for the gradual increase.

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Services suspended on the Snaefell Mountain Railway

Posted on Monday 25 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

All services have been suspended on the Snaefell Mountain Railway with immediate effect as investigations and rectification work in light of the runaway tram incident earlier this year continue. The runaway incident took place at the start of August and although there was a previous suspension of the line services had resumed but in order to concentrate all efforts in ensuring that the system is as safe as it can be the decision has been taken not to run any further journeys until further notice.

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Picture in Time: Croydon Tramlink 2533

Posted on Saturday 23 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

Today Picture in Time heads to Croydon as we feature one of the many advertising liveries to have been carried on Tramlink since it opened to the public. This is 2533 in an ad for Nescafe.

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A Brush car birthday bonanza!

Posted on Friday 22 September 2017 by Andrew Waddington

Blackpool’s now annual tramway anniversary event (well who says you can’t celebrate 132 years of operation!?) got off to an impressive start on Friday 22nd September, which was dubbed ‘Brush car Friday’. As this year’s event will heavily feature the Brush Railcoach class in honour of their 80th anniversary year, it was decided to put all four operational cars of this type in the spotlight with a special running day as a warm-up to the main event to be held on 23rd & 24th September.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Twin Car 672+682

Posted on Thursday 21 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

Back to the Metro Coastlines years of the Blackpool Tramway today as we feature popular Twin set 672+682 at a time when they carried the garish Orange and Yellow Line 1 livery in 2005.

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In Pictures: Midland Metro 26 heads off for repairs

Posted on Thursday 21 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

In recent months there have been two notable absentees running on Midland Metro – 18 which went off to Spain in January for the fitting of batteries and 26. It was not known why 26 hadn’t been used since June but this has now become obvious as half of the tram departed Wednesbury Depot on the back of a low loader on Wednesday 20th September for repair to take place.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Wednesday 20 September 2017 by Gareth Prior

We have a midweek update for you this week and there is one main item – photos from Crich!

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Birkenhead 7 to return to the limelight

Posted on Wednesday 20 September 2017 by Andrew Waddington

Shortly after the Birkenhead tramway’s big event to mark 60 years since Liverpool’s last tram, there was more exciting news from the Wirral with the confirmation that Birkenhead 7, a large double-deck horse car, is to move to the tramway for display next month following a lengthy period of storage off display.

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