In Pictures: Back to fleet livery for 3072

Posted on Friday 29 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

It would appear that Manchester Metrolink 3072 has had a successful job search as the tram is now back in fleet livery following the removal of its advertising vinyls for Total Jobs. Also previously unreported on these pages is the removal of the advert for Talk Talk on 3088. With the removal of these adverts it now means that just the four Vodafone adverts and 3075’s advert for The Body Shop remain of the full vinyl wraps – the lowest number seen for quite some time on Metrolink.

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First track in place in Douglas

Posted on Friday 29 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

With the first horse tram services for 2019 due to run next month a major milestone has been reached in the Prom redevelopment work – the laying of the first new tracks. The first rails have been put down in the section between Summer Hill Stables and the Strathallan terminus providing the first visible signs that trams will indeed be running once again in the near future.

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Tramlink disruption after collision with car

Posted on Friday 29 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Monday 25th March saw disruption to London Tramlink services with a suspension of the service between East Croydon and Sandilands after a car and a tram collided on Addiscombe Road. The collision occurred at around 0915 and although no injuries were reported the emergency services attended the scene leading to trams being stopped on Addiscombe Road – which links East Croydon with Sandilands with a stop at Lebanon Road – until around 1140 when the road was reopened.

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Another Metro tram to be named

Posted on Thursday 28 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

It has been announced that another Urbos 3 is to be named although it is unlikely to elicit as much excitement with the public as the last one! Roger Lawrence, current leader of Wolverhampton City Council and portfolio holder for transport at the West Midlands Combined Authority, is to step down at the May elections but to honour him for his contribution to transport in the region it has been confirmed a tram will be named after him. No further details have been given but it seems unlikely he will get a silhouette on the side on the tram a la Cyrille Regis!

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Details announced for first stage of 2019 Supertram rail replacement works

Posted on Thursday 28 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Passengers who usually travel on the Blue and Yellow routes of Stagecoach Supertram beyond Hillsborough better get used to service disruption as the start of a long period of rail replacement works gets underway on Friday 19th April with the first details announced of the planned service.

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Picture in Time: Great Orme Tramway 6

Posted on Thursday 28 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Staying in North Wales for this week’s archive image as we had back to the 1990s again.

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Power failure causes more problems for West Midlands Metro

Posted on Wednesday 27 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Coming just a couple of weeks since damage to the overhead wires caused major disruption to West Midlands Metro services, there has been further problems with a power failure meaning no trams were able to run into Birmingham City Centre for periods on Sunday 24th and Monday 25th March.

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Blackpool Balloon 704 restoration project announced

Posted on Wednesday 27 March 2019 by Andrew Waddington

Fresh from the news about the delivery of a supply of steel for two new Balloon car underframes at Blackpool’s Rigby Road workshops, it has now been confirmed which trams will be the beneficiaries of these materials. As expected, one new underframe is destined for ‘Princess Alice’ 706, after the appeal to raise funds for its restoration exceeded the £10,000 amount required to build this. The second underframe is, more surprisingly, intended for sister car 704 which is set to be worked on simultaneously with 706!

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Edinburgh Trams win for third year at Chamber of Commerce Awards

Posted on Wednesday 27 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Edinburgh Trams have been celebrating another award having been given the High Business Growth accolade at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Business Awards – the third year that they have been recognised at these awards.

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New Balloon car underframes under construction

Posted on Tuesday 26 March 2019 by Andrew Waddington

An exciting development at Blackpool is the recent delivery of a large quantity of steel to the Rigby Road workshops, which has been supplied to use in the construction of not one, but two new Balloon car underframes. In addition, the manufacture of some components for these has already been started.

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Limited Tramlink service confirmed for 28th March

Posted on Tuesday 26 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Transport for London have confirmed that a limited service will operate on London Tramlink during the planned strike on Thursday 28th March. This service will mainly consist of trams running between Wimbledon and East Croydon although the very first two trams of the day will run to New Addington. There will no trams at all on the Beckenham Junction and Elmers End routes.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool OMO 11, Glasgow 1297 & Coronation 660

Posted on Tuesday 26 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Today as we continue our Picture in Time series we have a photo that really makes you want to find a time machine and travel back in time to experience what is going in person!

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Tyne & Wear Metro wins at UK Rail Business Awards

Posted on Monday 25 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

For long suffering passengers who are delayed regularly it may seem a surprise but the Tyne and Wear Metro is celebrating after winning at the Rail Business Awards for helping to transport people for a packed programme of events in summer 2018.

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In Pictures: Blackpool Winter Gold – 23rd March 2019

Posted on Monday 25 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

The final Blackpool Winter Gold event before the full 2019 season gets underway took place over the weekend of Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March with the standard Winter intensive timetable in operation including trams running between Starr Gate and Fleetwood. With the sun once again shining and all the trams running to Fleetwood at least once in the day another excellent event was enjoyed by Trevor Hall.

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Season ticket prices to see small increase on NET

Posted on Monday 25 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

It will be no April Fool for travellers on Nottingham Express Transit as there will be an increase to season ticket prices from Monday 1st April – although they are only small changes with all prices going up by less than the rate of inflation.

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Around the World in Trams: Palermo 08

Posted on Sunday 24 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

This week we stay on Sicily to feature more images from the tramway in Palermo. This time we take a look at Flexity Outlook no. 08.

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Up they go – Metrolink performance increase again

Posted on Sunday 24 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

If you were suspicious you would think that when there is good news with the performance stats on Manchester Metrolink they are a lot quicker to release the figures as it has only taken just over two weeks for TfGM to publish the statistics for period 12 (3rd February to 2nd March 2019) rather than the usual three to four weeks. And the stats do provide good reading with 91.7% of all trams departing less than two minutes late.

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In Pictures: Sunderland 16 returns to service

Posted on Sunday 24 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

Having spent the best part of the last couple of months out of service with a failed resistor grid, Sunderland 16 made a welcome return to service at Beamish on Saturday 23rd March adding some extra capacity to the tram fleet just as things start to ramp up ahead of April’s Great North Steam Fair.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 24 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

We head off north of the border this week to bring you some images from Edinburgh:

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Metro Brierley Hill extension gets funding green light

Posted on Saturday 23 March 2019 by Gareth Prior

The West Midlands Metro is set to continue its major expansion in the forthcoming years following the news that the West Midlands Combined Authority have given the final go-ahead for the cash to be made available for the line to Brierley Hill. £449 million is being budgeted for the extension which would open in 2023.

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