Performance goes down on Tyne and Wear Metro

Posted on Saturday 9 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

After a couple of months where performance has remained at 85% on the Tyne and Wear Metro the latest four week period has shown a fall to 82% – which although a decrease from the previous period does show a big 8% improvement on the same time in 2018.

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Marking 70 years since the end of trams in Leicester

Posted on Saturday 9 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Today (9th November) marks the 70th anniversary of the closure of Leicester Corporation Tramways, a network which at its peak ran for almost 23 miles around the East Midlands city. To mark the anniversary we take a brief look back at the history of the tramway as well as at some survivors.

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In Pictures: Disruption continues on Supertram

Posted on Friday 8 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

We brought you the news last night about the flooding causing disruption for Stagecoach Supertram and 24 hours later it is still making its presence felt with a revised Supertram service still running and no sign of when this may end. The heavy rain which fell in South Yorkshire (as well as other areas of northern England) on Thursday 7th November caused flooding across the region and led to people not being able to leave Meadowhall Shopping Centre with some having to spend the night. For Supertram the high level of the River Don had meant the tram bridge at Tinsley was deemed unsafe and as such no trams could travel beyond Meadowhall South/Tinsley on both the Yellow and Tram-Train routes.

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Extra trams to run on Metrolink in lead up to Christmas

Posted on Friday 8 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

For a month in the lead up to Christmas this year there will be extra services running on Manchester Metrolink with trams running later on certain routes giving a 6 minute frequency later than usual whilst Fridays and Saturdays will see trams running an hour later.

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Heaton Park to celebrate end of season on 17th November

Posted on Friday 8 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Its been a challenging couple of months for the Heaton Park Tramway with the theft of overhead wire leading to the closure of the tramway for around a month whilst the local community and TfGM/KAM rallied around to help replace the equipment. But now with the tramway back operating again they are ready to celebrate the end of season on Sunday 17th November.

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Santa Claus is coming to Edinburgh Trams again!

Posted on Thursday 7 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

After the success of last year’s Santa Express on Edinburgh Trams the man himself will again be heading back to the Scottish capital at the start of December and this time around he will be travelling on the tram for two days – Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd December. Pre-bookable journeys will be running between Gyle Centre and St Andrew Square with tickets also valid for a return journey too.

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Rain causes more issues on Supertram

Posted on Thursday 7 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Its starting to look like Stagecoach Supertram has a major aversion to heavy rain as following closely behind the suspension of the tram-train service to Rotherham Parkgate a couple of weeks there has been a further disruption to services with no trams able to travel beyond Meadowhall South/Tinsley from the city centre as the “Tinsley tram bridge is at risk”. The disruption started during Thursday 7th November.

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Picture in Time: Edinburgh 35

Posted on Thursday 7 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Today we continue our look at the trams which ran during the Glasgow Garden Festival. This time around it is Edinburgh 35 which was operating in its third town/city at the time having previously run on its home system and in Blackpool.

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Metrolink Trafford Park line comes towards a conclusion

Posted on Wednesday 6 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

The next extension due to open on Manchester Metrolink – scheduled for the first half of 2020 – to the Trafford Centre has achieved a couple more significant milestones recently including the final concrete pouring and the full reopening of Trafford Wharf Road after over two years of disruption.

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Edinburgh gets ready for Newhaven extension works

Posted on Wednesday 6 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Monday 18th November will be a key milestone in the work to bring Trams to Newhaven in Edinburgh as that will be the date that phase one of construction starts on Constitution Street. The work here will be split into two sections and in preparation for the start a public information event is due to take place at South Leith Parish Church on Thursday 7th November.

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Nexus warn of risks to future Metro services as a result of fall in revenue

Posted on Wednesday 6 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Nexus have issued a warning that they are only able to guarantee current service levels on the Tyne and Wear Metro, the Shields ferry and those bus routes they operate until 2021 with the continued challenging financial climate they are experiencing seeing their reserves being depleted. A fall in revenue on the Metro of £1.2 million has been exacerbated by a bill for £300,000 on major unplanned overhead line repairs in May and having to spend £500,000 in overtime so far in 2019 because of staff shortages.

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In Pictures: Volk’s Electric Railway closes the season with three car service

Posted on Tuesday 5 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

For the first time in over 25 years the Volk’s Electric Railway operated a public three car service on Sunday 3rd November, a day which also marked the last day of the regular operating season for the year (although there will be Santa Special trips in the lead up to Christmas). Before the day it was announced that 3rd November would see the very first three car service for a long time and that 7+8, 9 and 10 would all run, subject to availability, but in the event 4 replaced 7+8. To enable a three car service – instead of the usual two car – trains used single line tokens for each section they operated in and saw the rare use of the passing loops along the line instead of the more usual passing at Halfway Station. Tony Sullivan provides us with the following photographic action from the day.

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Information events to take place for Metro extension to Brierley Hill

Posted on Tuesday 5 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Local residents and businesses will get a chance later this month to find out more information about the planned West Midlands Metro extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill via Dudley at a number of events taking place across the area. The 11km route is expected to start operation in 2023 and these events are all part of the engagement exercise to make sure everyone gets the chance to find out more before construction begins.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Jubilee 761

Posted on Tuesday 5 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

We head back another 12 years for this edition of Picture in Time as we take a look at a tram in Blackpool during 2007.

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In Pictures: Metrolink stops get a makeover – Cornbrook

Posted on Monday 4 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Over the late summer and early autumn period Manchester Metrolink have been working on the refurbishment of a couple of key stops on the network with the aim of improving the overall waiting environment for passengers. One of these stops has been Cornbrook which has become a major interchange for passengers with the Eccles-Ashton-under-Lyne, East Didsbury-Rochdale, Altrincham-Bury (and Altrincham-Piccadilly) and Manchester Airport-Victoria services all calling there but is in an exposed location. This pictorial update from Steve Hyde shows the work undertaken on the stop.

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In Pictures: A busy Half Term Day at Beamish

Posted on Monday 4 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

It’s the last hurrah before Christmas, the October Half Term school holidays as many heritage attractions open fully for the last time of the year, and as far as Beamish is concerned it’s another busy period, especially with Halloween evening events also taking place. On Thursday 31st October itself, a cool but sunny day, the crowds at the museum merited a three tram service as seen in the below photos from Trevor Hall.

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Automatic braking system being installed on London Tramlink

Posted on Monday 4 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

A new on-board automatic braking system is being fitted to all trams on London Tramlink as Transport for London and Tram Operations Limited (TOL – operator of the network) put into practice another of the RAIB recommendations following the tragic derailment at Sandilands on 9th November 2016. The system will see braking automatically applied at pre-defined locations on the system if the tram is found to be overspeeding.

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Around the World in Trams: Milan 1862

Posted on Sunday 3 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Milan is again the location for this week’s look at trams from outside the British Isles.

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In Pictures: A late October day in Blackpool

Posted on Sunday 3 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

Wednesday 30th October was just another illumination day in Blackpool with a two tram afternoon heritage service along the Prom followed by evening illumination tours. With it still being October Half Term in various areas of the UK it was a busy day, especially during the evening, which necessitated five trams in use on illumination tours and even with those there were fairly lengthy waits for tours. In this pictorial, we see photos from Peter Narramore of the afternoon service in the hands of recently returned Centenary 642 and Balloon 718 before we take a look at a Balloon on evening tour duty and throw in a Flexity for good measure as well!

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Over a million passengers enjoy the Tram-Train service within the first year

Posted on Sunday 3 November 2019 by Gareth Prior

On 25th October the Tram-Train pilot between Sheffield and Rotherham celebrated its first anniversary with the news that over a million passengers had travelled on the service during the first 12 months of operation. The millionth passenger journey was recorded during October.

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