Repairs completed and normal service resumes on Midland Metro

Posted on Tuesday 12 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

After four days of a revised service the normal full length service between Wolverhampton St George’s and Grand Central resumed from the start of Tuesday 12th June. The repairs on the damaged overhead between Jewellery Quarter and Soho Benson Road were finally completed overnight on Monday 11th June allowing normal service to resume.

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Picture in Time: Manchester Metrolink 1004

Posted on Tuesday 12 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

This instalment of Picture in Time heads to Manchester Metrolink for a photo taken in the early days of Manchester Metrolink.

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Eccles line to close for 13 days from late July

Posted on Monday 11 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

No trams will run to Eccles for 13 days from Saturday 28th July to allow construction work to take place connecting the current line with the Trafford Park extension. This period will also enable other maintenance work to take place on the Eccles line without providing any further disruption for passengers.

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Still no full service on Midland Metro

Posted on Monday 11 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Passengers wishing to travel the full length of Midland Metro are still subject to a change of trams at Jewellery Quarter with the work to repair the overhead line yet to be completed. The problems have been ongoing since the evening of Thursday 7th June with a revised service operating ever since.

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New advert for Metrolink 3103

Posted on Sunday 10 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

The latest vinyl wrap advert to be applied on Manchester Metrolink is for Hits Radio Manchester with 3103 the tram to carry the ad. Hits Radio is the new name for Key 103 and thus becomes the second tram to advertise the radio station following on from 3095 in 2017. The choice of 3103 is appropriate as Hits Radio can be found on 103FM in Manchester (as well as digitally across the UK). As is normal the advert features vinyls on the body sides – avoiding the ends which remain in standard fleet livery – and includes contravision.

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Another drop in punctuality for Metrolink

Posted on Sunday 10 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

The latest performance stats on Manchester Metrolink have shown that in the four weeks between 29th April and 26th May there was a further deterioration in punctuality across the network. Reliability also saw a drop although this was minimal.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 10 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

We have double the helping of Photo Galleries for you this week with photos from two areas of the Midlands:

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Increase in passengers on Luas

Posted on Saturday 9 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Luas has enjoyed its best year yet for passenger numbers with 37.65 million passenger journeys recorded in 2017 – an increase of 3 million on the previous years figures. The Luas increase is part of a general trend in Ireland for subsidised public transport which saw a total of 252 million passenger journey, up by 16 million from 2016.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Balloon 710

Posted on Saturday 9 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

We feature another tram which is now part of the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust collection in this edition of Picture in Time – Balloon 710.

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Volk’s Electric Railway 6 & 10 prepared to return

Posted on Saturday 9 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

The second and third of the three Volk’s Electric Railway cars which were overhauled by Alan Keef Ltd in Ross on Wye are currently being prepared for a return to service with both hoped to be back in use in time for the peak summer season. Nos. 6 and 10 are now both back in Brighton where work is underway to fully commission them for service.

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In Pictures: Supertram rail replacement works go on

Posted on Saturday 9 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Phase One of the 2018 rail replacement project on Stagecoach Supertram has been continuing over the past week with work now having moved across to the outbound side at Carlton Road. Despite fears that the heavy rain experienced may have caused the reopening of Catch Bar Lane to be delayed this was reopened as planned at 0500 on Monday 4th June. Stuart Cooke once again provides us with the latest images from this work.

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Overhead problems on Midland Metro – and disruption will continue until Monday **updated**

Posted on Friday 8 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Of all the UK tram systems it seems that Midland Metro has a disproportionate number of major issues with its overhead with the latest incident occurring late on Thursday 7th June causing disruption to services from Friday 8th June. It seems that a tram at Jewellery Quarter caused the damage around 1900 on the evening on Thursday 7th June with the damage severe enough to cause a split service to run instead of a full length operation – this revised service has been confirmed as being in place until at least the end of service on Monday 11th June.

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New Seaton terminus will open 28th June

Posted on Friday 8 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

After nine months work the new terminus at Seaton will open to the public from Thursday 28th June. The first trams will depart Seaton at 1000 following the completion of the £3 million project to build a new facility more in keeping with the surrounding area which has seen its own multi-million pound investment in recent years including the Seaton Jurassic facility.

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MER Trailer 42 back in service

Posted on Thursday 7 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

We reported a few days ago that Manx Electric Railway trailer 42 was set to return to service imminently and no sooner has we run that story than it did! Monday 4th June was the day – for the first in nine years – that 42 returned to passenger service.

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Twin Car on the way back

Posted on Thursday 7 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Since the fire suffered by Twin Car 272+T2 in Blackpool back in September 2016 this popular class of tram has been missing from the Blackpool Tramway but all that is about to change with set 5 now in the works at Rigby Road undergoing a full rewire. This Twin Car was taken out of service in 2016 and missed the entire 2017 season but all being well it is now hoped it will be back in use before the end of this year.

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Around the World in Trams: Coastal Tramway 6105

Posted on Thursday 7 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

We are back on our world travels as we resume our look at trams from around the world each Thursday and todat we are off to the coast as we take a look at the longest tram ride in the world – Belgium’s Coastal Tram.

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In Pictures: Rotherham Parkgate progress

Posted on Wednesday 6 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Just a few weeks ago we were bemoaning the apparent lack of progress in the construction at Rotherham Parkgate – the terminus of the Tram-Train service from Cathedral due to be finally introduced later this year – but in these latest photos, provided by Stuart Cooke, we see that there has been some work completed recently on the platform.

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Temporary suspension of services along Princes Street for procession

Posted on Wednesday 6 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

Edinburgh Trams services will not be able to run along Princes Street for several hours on Sunday 10th June to allow for a special procession commemorating the centenary of women getting the vote. Services will only run between Edinburgh Airport and West End Princes Street between approximately 1330 and 1730 with the last full route tram from the Airport at 1240 and from York Place at 1322. It is expected that the first trams after the closure will be 1703 from the Airport and 1744 from York Place although this is subject to change depending when the procession ends. It has also been announced that services will extended beyond midnight the previous day – Saturday 9th June – to cater for crowds attending a Rolling Stones concert at Murrayfield Stadium.

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In Pictures: What’s that? Oh yes, more adverts in Edinburgh!

Posted on Tuesday 5 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

The application of adverts on Edinburgh Trams shows no signs of slowing down (well it does actually as it won’t be long before they’ve run out of trams!) with not one but two more recently been confirmed as being in use. Both are for existing sponsors with the 20th ad for C R Smith on 265 whilst the Parabola development at Edinburgh Park has a second tram with an advert now applied to 268.

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The end for ticket machines is on the way on Tramlink

Posted on Tuesday 5 June 2018 by Gareth Prior

All ticket machines on London Tramlink will be removed on 16th July with the system going fully “cashless”. With less than 66 paper tickets sold a day, and following a consultation last year, the decision has been made to no longer offer cash fares with the higher increase in the use Oyster and contactless fares.

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