399 204 breaks down on test (**Photo now added**)

Posted on Saturday 4 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

Firstly, the good news – it is now obvious that test running of the tram-trains is underway on the wider Stagecoach Supertram network. Unfortunately, the reason why we can confirm this is because one of the vehicles broke down in the early hours of Monday 30th January causing delays to Blue route trams at the start of service.

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M5000 3116 returns to service

Posted on Saturday 4 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

Having last operated in July 2016 Manchester Metrolink M5000 3116 has now returned to service following attention in the works. Following successful tests the tram returned to service this week being initially used on the Exchange Square to Rochdale Town Centre service. As things stand currently the tram has not been to Eccles, Ashton-under-Lyne or East Didsbury.

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Lorry gets stuck on Midland Metro tracks

Posted on Saturday 4 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

Midland Metro services were into Birmingham City Centre were suspended for nearly six hours on Tuesday 31st January after a lorry driver got lost which ended up which his vehicle becoming stuck on the grassed section of track between Bull Street and St Chad’s.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 5 Comments

Silver and Highly Commended for Seaton Tramway at awards

Posted on Saturday 4 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

Seaton Tramway are once again celebrating following the receipt of awards at the recent South West Tourism Excellence Awards. Although not walking away with the main prizes Seaton were awarded a Silver Award in one category whilst also being highly commended in another.

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British Trams Online downtime

Posted on Saturday 4 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

Some of you may have noticed that for a period on Friday 3rd February British Trams Online was completely unavailable. Despite my initial fears that I had again managed to forget to renew the hosting package (not realising I could be that stupid again!)  it later transpired that was due to major issues at the hosting company which had seen all websites hosted with them become unavailable. As you can see the website is now back in its entirety and regular updates will resume shortly. There won’t be a main site update this weekend anyway – for unrelated reasons – but we will update this page with more news over the weekend before the full site returns later in February.

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Picture in Time: Nottingham Express Transit 206

Posted on Saturday 4 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

We head off to Nottingham for today’s instalment of Picture in Time with an image coming from 2007 of one of the original Incentro trams in the original livery. It is no. 206.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool OMO 1

Posted on Thursday 2 February 2017 by Gareth Prior

The very first of the One Man Operated trams is the feature of today’s Picture in Time as we take a look at the Plum and Custard liveried no. 1 in 1973.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Picture in Time | 1 Comment

Picture in Time: Seaton 6

Posted on Tuesday 31 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

We are back on the Seaton Tramway for today’s view from the archives as part of Picture in Time with no. 6 the tram being featured.

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Heritage Tram Tours launch 2017 in style!

Posted on Monday 30 January 2017 by Andrew Waddington

The weekend of January 28th & 29th saw the first heritage tram tours of 2017 operating in Blackpool, with the now familiar ‘Gold’ service in operation to start the year with a bang! This ran to the usual pattern with a total of six different trams running per day, mostly between Pleasure Beach and Bispham or Little Bispham with additional journeys to Fleetwood and a variety of other destinations spread out across the day.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 4 Comments

New ‘Limited Stop’ signs on Blackpool’s heritage trams

Posted on Monday 30 January 2017 by Andrew Waddington

A small yet welcome change has adorned a number of Blackpool’s traditional trams for the start of the 2017 operating season. Since the heritage service was revived with a more frequent service and volunteer crews in 2015, trams have carried notices informing would-be passengers that they operate a limited stop tour service, in an attempt to help confused people differentiate them from the modern LRT trams.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 29 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

We head to Manchester for a small selection of photos this week:

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink, Site News | 3 Comments

Picture in Time: Midland Metro 12

Posted on Saturday 28 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

Off to the West Midlands for this edition of Picture in Time as we take a look at one of the original T69 trams which operated on Midland Metro.

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Passenger numbers up on Midland Metro

Posted on Friday 27 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

New figures reported by the Wolverhampton Express and Star have shown that Midland Metro is more popular than ever with more than a million passengers being carried on the line in November and December – a 300,000 increase. The increased passenger numbers come at a time when Midland Metro is in a major expansion programme with the line through Birmingham City Centre just the start of things to come.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 5 Comments

September start for Edinburgh Tram inquiry public hearings

Posted on Friday 27 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

Although it has been a lengthy process to get to this stage it has now been announced that the Edinburgh Trams Inquiry public hearings will start in September with this stage likely to take several months. The hearings will take place on three days a week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – from Tuesday 5th September.

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Weather causes delays for Metrolink and NET

Posted on Friday 27 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

Both Manchester Metrolink and Nottingham Express Transit have suffered service delays in the past week with the blame in both cases being put down to ice on the wires. For Metrolink the problems happened on Tuesday 24th January with freezing fog the culprit whilst NET’s delays were reported the following day, Wednesday 25th January.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink, Nottingham Express Transit | 7 Comments

Picture in Time: Blackpool Coronation 663

Posted on Thursday 26 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

Its 1969 for the latest edition of Picture in Time and we are once again on the Lancashire coast and Blackpool as we take a look at one of the surviving Coronation Cars.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Picture in Time | 6 Comments

Glasgow 22 in, Glasgow 1068 out at Crich in 2017

Posted on Wednesday 25 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

18 different electric passenger trams are set to be used in service at the Crich Tramway Village in 2017. As expected London Transport 1622 is not part of the operational fleet this year and it has been joined in the withdrawn stakes by popular open topper Glasgow 1068. On the other side of the coin it has been confirmed that Glasgow 22 will join the operating pool again this year having only just seen use at the very end of 2016.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 4 Comments

Closure ahead for Tramlink track replacement

Posted on Tuesday 24 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

No services will run on London Tramlink between Mitcham and Wimbledon from 11th to 20th February to allow for track replacement work to take place. A replacement bus service will be in operation throughout serving Wimbledon, Morden Road and Mitcham stops only.

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Picture in Time: Manx Electric Railway 2

Posted on Tuesday 24 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

Today Picture in Time is back on the Isle of Man as we take a trip to Ramsey and find one of the “oldest trams in the world to still run on their original line” operating over 50 years ago when it might not actually have been able to use that title!

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Testing continues on Second City Crossing

Posted on Monday 23 January 2017 by Gareth Prior

Opening of Manchester Metrolink’s Second City Crossing (2CC) continues to move closer with another round of successful testing taking place over the weekend. Nine trams were out on the line on Sunday 22nd January with Cllrs Andrew Fender and Pat Karney joining the engineers to witness the rigorous testing and commissioning process.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 5 Comments