In Pictures: Birmingham City Centre extension update

Posted on Friday 20 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

Construction work on the Midland Metro extension between Snow Hill and New Street stations is continuing ahead of the opening of the line late this year. This small photo update from the camera of Ken Jones shows the current state of affairs around New Street and Corporation Street.

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Track works to cause disruption on NET over Easter

Posted on Friday 20 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

Nottingham Express Transit services will be suspended between The Forest and Wilkinson Street from Friday 3rd April until Wednesday 8th April to allow for a major upgrade of the tracks. The works need to be completed before the expansion of services to Clifton and Chilwell and are described as essential.

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Going for a ride…

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

As winter turns into spring, the temperatures start to gradually rise and we actually start to get several hours of daylight the UK’s heritage tramways start to rise from their slumbers to provide entertainment for the masses and that can mean only one thing the return of our one-stop guide to when and where you can enjoy a ride on a traditional tram! Newly rebranded for 2015 (although the name change may only be a short-term measure, if you can think of a better title let us know!) “Going for a ride” provides details of when heritage tramway are running services along with the next special events taking place. So if you are fed up of not having any tramways to visit now is your chance to get out and about and then send your photos through to British Trams Online!

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A Hull of a delay

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

Some slightly disappointing news comes from the Heaton Park Tramway, where delays to the completion of restoration work on Hull 96 has forced the Manchester Transport Museum Society to postpone its planned return to use. A special launch day had been planned for 28th June, but it is now felt that this is an unrealistic target and therefore a revised date of Sunday 11th October has been decided on.

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Croydon Town Centre improvement works start

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

London Tramlink services were suspended around the central Croydon loop over the weekend of 14th and 15th March as a start was made on the works to improve the landscape of the town centre with the “Connected Croydon” project. This was just the first of several weekend closures along with a much longer shutdown over Easter when no trams will run between Reeves Corner and East Croydon (extended to Sandilands for a period as well) for 17 days starting from 28th March.

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Riding and dining in Blackpool

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

Blackpool Transport’s latest venture from its highly succesful Heritage Tram Tours commenced operation on Wednesday 18th March, when the first ever ‘Ride & Dine Wednesday’ event took place, featuring restored Balloon car 717. This also marked the beginning of the 2015 season as far as the heritage trams are concerned – a noticeably earlier start than has been the case for some years, even before the tramway upgrade.

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Supertram to amend fares during next stage of rail replacement works

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

Stagecoach Supertram have announced that they will either be freezing or reducing ticket prices when the next stage of rail replacement works start on the network. Single tickets are to remain at the same price whilst there is a reduction in the price of Tram and Bus Dayrider tickets with a new Tram only Megarider weekly ticket also being introduced.

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Posted in South Yorkshire Supertram | 1 Comment

The tiger gains its stripes

Posted on Tuesday 17 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

Efforts to recreate one of the best-loved advertising liveries in the history of the Blackpool tramway have been completed recently, in a most unusual location. Now based at Anchorsholme Academy, Blackpool Brush Railcoach 622 has now received the full external graphics to complete its Blackpool Zoo livery, first carried by this tram back in 1975.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Standard 49

Posted on Tuesday 17 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

We head to Crich for the latest instalment of “Picture in Time” and turn back the clock to 1979 with a view of Blackpool Standard 49.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum, Picture in Time | 3 Comments

Rack 2 gets stuffed

Posted on Sunday 15 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

As expected, Blackpool & Fleetwood ‘Rack’ 2 has now taken up residence in the Great Exhibition Hall at Crich Tramway Village. This tram has been a popular member of the running fleet at Crich almost constantly since the commencement of electric tram operation there in 1964, but was withdrawn last year and is now likely to endure a lengthy period of inactivity. The tram has taken the place of Newcastle 102 which was a temporary addition to the static exhibition last year, and which now will presumably remain stored in a less visible area of the museum.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 28 Comments

This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 15 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

We head to Nottingham in this week’s update as we feature images from Phase Two testing and driver training:

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Brush 621

Posted on Friday 13 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

With Blackpool Brush 621 enjoying a rare weekend in the spotlight last weekend as part of the Beamish’s Power from the Past event what better tram to feature in tonight’s Picture in Time feature? We head back over 20 years to 1993 when although the Blackpool Tramway wasn’t really in its heyday anymore was still a very different beast to that which was all know today.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Picture in Time | 8 Comments

Penultimate Urbos 3 arrives in the West Midlands

Posted on Friday 13 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

There are now 20 Urbos 3 trams on Midland Metro metals following the delivery of 36 to the Wednesbury depot early on Friday 13th March. The tram was once again delivered in two sections and was unloaded in the rain before being moved into the workshops for commissioning.

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In Pictures: Midland Metro rail replacement project goes on

Posted on Friday 13 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

The severely over running rail replacement project on Midland Metro between The Royal and Wolverhampton St George’s is continuing as efforts are made to re-open the line this month as promised by Centro earlier this year. In this latest picture update we show the current state of affairs which seems to suggest that there is a lot of work to be completed with some of the excavations not yet fully filled in and a large amount of track still to be laid. Photos courtesy of Andy Walters.

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Date confirmed for 680’s Heaton Park debut

Posted on Friday 13 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

The much-anticipated entry into service of Blackpool Ex-Towing car 680 (currently known by its earlier identity of 280) at its new permanent home, the Heaton Park Tramway, has been confirmed to take place on 26th April. Having just made its farewell passenger appearance at Beamish Museum last weekend, the tram will shortly be transported to Manchester to begin its new life as a member of the Heaton Park fleet.

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Man hit by tram in Wythenshawe

Posted on Friday 13 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

A pensioner was hit by a tram in Wythenshawe Town Centre on Monday 9th March causing Metrolink services to be suspended for two hours from shortly after 1000. It seems that the man was attempting to cross the tram tracks outside Wythenshawe Civic Centre when he was struck by the tram and emergency services were called to the scene to treat the man who was later taken to hospital. No trams ran between Martinscroft and Manchester Airport until 1215 after which the line was fully reopened.

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NET Phase Two testing extends again

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

The testing and commissioning process on the Nottingham Express Transit Phase Two extensions has once again taken a step forward with both the first weekend daytime tests and the extension of overnight testing as far as University Boulevard on the Chilwell line. At the same time images have appeared of the first Bombardier Incentro tram to run on the extension.

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An eventful early season weekend at Beamish

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

Beamish Museum staged two days of enhanced tramway activity on the weekend of Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th March, with all of the currently operational tramcars in service and others displayed prominently for photographic opportunities, plus some bonus evening events for a modest extra charge. Highlights included the very last appearance of Blackpool 280 in service at the museum before it moves to a new home, and the first public appearance by Blackpool Brush Railcoach 621 since joining the resident tram fleet.

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In Pictures: Cambridge Horse Tram 7 restoration

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

One of the lower profile tram restorations in the UK is that of Cambridge horse tram no. 7 which has been undergoing restoration for two years now at the Ipswich Transport Museum. We have previously reported on the remarkable discovery during the initial stages of the restoration that the tram was in fact third hand to Cambridge having previously run in both Bradford and Bath and now progress is being made on the Heritage Lottery Funded project.

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Posted in Ipswich Transport Museum | 2 Comments

Urbos 3s run a complete weekday service on Midland Metro

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

The day many had feared would come has finally arrived – a complete Midland Metro weekday service has been operated by the new Urbos 3 trams. The fateful day – or historic day depending on your viewpoint – occurred on Thursday 12th March with the only 10 available CAF built trams being used in service without any obvious problems.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 2 Comments