Midland Metro welcomes its tenth Urbos 3

Posted on Friday 11 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

There are now ten CAF constructed Urbos 3 trams on Midland Metro metals following the arrival of 26 on Friday 4th July. As with all previous deliveries the tram arrived in two sections and was transported via Plymouth before arriving at its home of Wednesbury Depot. Soon after arrival it was moved into the workshops where a start was made on its commissioning. The other new trams which have arrived continue to be used on driver training (a number have now reached 18,000km fault free running) with vehicles as high as 23 having been noted on these duties so far. No official date has yet been set for their entry into service.

Posted in West Midlands Metro | 2 Comments

In Pictures: Supertram trackwork makes swift progress

Posted on Friday 11 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

Rail replacement work on Stagecoach Supertram has made quick progress with the inbound track on West Street (between City Hall tramstop and Rockingham Street) now replaced and attention is now being turned to the outbound track on the same stretch of road.

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Bye bye to Brush car 298

Posted on Friday 11 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

On Friday 11th July, Blackpool Brush Railcoach 298 left the National Tramway Museum at Crich, and was transported to the museum store at Clay Cross. Earlier in the week, preparations for the move were made with 298 being moved to the front of the depot, and a protective sheet being placed over the tram. This was presumably to protect it as the sliding roof panels are incomplete, meaning that the car is not fully watertight.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 11 Comments

Birkenhead tramway closes temporarily

Posted on Friday 11 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The saying that lightning never strikes twice in the same place seems to have been proven wrong, with a second piece of bad news from the Birkenhead tramway coming in the same week. Unfortunately the heritage line will be closed this weekend, 12th & 13th July. This is due to an electrical fault with the depot circuit breaker, meaning that it will not be possible to operate a tram service.

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Posted in Birkenhead Heritage Tramway | 2 Comments

Box 40 is back on the prom!

Posted on Thursday 10 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

After an absence of almost a year, Blackpool & Fleetwood ‘Box’ car 40 was back in action on the Blackpool tramway on Wednesday 9th July, when the tram was taken for a test run along the promenade. Representatives of the Crich workshop and curatorial departments were invited along for the ride, having been involved in the refurbishment of the bogies, whilst work on the body has been carried out in Blackpool Transport’s own workshops.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, National Tramway Museum | 7 Comments

The Liverpool launch is postponed

Posted on Wednesday 9 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Some bad news to report concerns the planned launch of the newly restored Liverpool 245 which has been postponed due to unforeseen technical difficulties. The completion of this long-running restoration project has experienced more than its fair share of delays, not least due to a contract firm taking considerably longer than expected to complete work on the car’s truck and underframe, and the latest setback means that it will not be possible to launch the tram on 19th July as planned.

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Posted in Birkenhead Heritage Tramway | 3 Comments

Supertram breaks passenger number records

Posted on Wednesday 9 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

Sunday 6th July was a record breaking day for Stagecoach Supertram with almost 70,000 passenger journeys recorded as the crowds flocked to Sheffield for stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France. Of these journeys approximately 35,000 were made in a three hour period from 1630 until 1930; after the end of the race.

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Posted in South Yorkshire Supertram | 3 Comments

Major changes on the way for St Peter’s Square

Posted on Wednesday 9 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

It has been confirmed that St Peter’s Square Metrolink stop will be closed for 14 months to allow for major redevelopment works which will include two new island platforms. The closure will start in summer 2015 and for most of this period single line operation will be in use although two eight week periods at the start and end of the period will see no services at all through St Peter’s Square.

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In Pictures: Supertram trackwork moves on to West Street

Posted on Wednesday 9 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

The final phase of rail replacement works for 2014 on Stagecoach Supertram are now underway with works concentrated on the West Street area. As a result of these works both the Blue and Yellow routes are affected with trams from Halfway and Meadowhall only running as far as Cathedral, replacement buses completing the routes to Malin Bridge and Middlewood respectively. These works are scheduled to be completed by mid September.

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Crich confirm exciting tram restoration plans

Posted on Tuesday 8 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The Tramway Museum Society have recently published a new strategy review, identifying key aims for the development of the National Tramway Museum at Crich over the next few years. This has included identifying which projects are to be high priorities for the workshop over the next ten or more years, with three trams being listed. All of these are likely to stir up strong emotions, none more so than one of the best loved trams in the entire collection – Blackpool Dreadnought 59.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 40 Comments

Blackpool event preview: Fleetwood ‘Tram Sunday’, 20th July

Posted on Tuesday 8 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The popular annual Fleetwood Festival of Transport will be held on Sunday 20th July and this will once again feature the heritage trams in a prominent role, with seven different cars due to feature at this event! Following the success of last year’s heritage tours, the service has been expanded for 2014 to operate between Fisherman’s Walk and North Pier.

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Positive developments for Merseyside trams

Posted on Tuesday 8 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Two vintage trams from the Merseyside area are looking forward to a more prosperous future following periods of disuse. Birkenhead 20 has recently returned to service on the Wirral heritage tramway, whilst at Crich, plans are afoot for Liverpool 869 to be returned to an operational condition.

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Posted in Birkenhead Heritage Tramway, National Tramway Museum | 1 Comment

More M5000s for Metrolink

Posted on Monday 7 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

The largest single class fleet of LRVs in the UK is set to get even bigger with the announcement that Transport for Greater Manchester has been awarded £50 million for transport investment from the Local Growth Fund (LGF). As part of this funding an extra 12 M5000s will be ordered from Bombardier bringing to the total fleet size to 116.

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Edinburgh Trams passenger numbers still high

Posted on Monday 7 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

Edinburgh Trams have revealed that average weekly passenger numbers – not including the launch week – are currently sitting at 90,000; this is in line with forecasts. During the first week of service 130,000 passengers were carried including 40,000 during the launch weekend.

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Posted in Edinburgh Trams | 3 Comments

In Pictures: Supertram puts on an intensive service for the Tour de France

Posted on Monday 7 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

On Sunday 6th July the world famous Tour de France visited Sheffield with the second leg of the cycling race ending in the South Yorkshire city. Throughout the day Stagecoach Supertram operated an intensive service which saw all of the trams in use with the exception of 108. Trams on the Blue route were diverted to run between Halfway and Meadowhall via the city centre with Purple route trams running between Herdings Park and Malin Bridge whilst Yellow route trams continued to operate between Middlewood and Meadowhall but at a higher frequency than normal.

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Event Review: Manchester 765 – 100 Not Out!

Posted on Monday 7 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

On Sunday 6th July, a very special event took place at Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway to commemorate the centenary of Manchester 765. Having been the tram which led to the formation of the Manchester Transport Museum Society and the re-opening of the old Heaton Park branch line as a preserved tramway, 765 understandably has a very special place in the MTMS collection and therefore it was given a fitting celebration to mark this occasion, although the event was also used as an ideal opportunity to showcase the recently expanded fleet of trams at Heaton Park, with an impressive eight different trams brought out during the course of the day.

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Posted in Feature Articles, Heaton Park Tramway | 1 Comment

Crich mark 50 years of electric trams

Posted on Monday 7 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Saturday 5th July 1964 was an extremely significant day in the history of British tramcar preservation, as this was the day when public services commenced at what would become the National Tramway Museum at Crich using electric trams. At 2:00pm, Blackpool & Fleetwood 2 earned its place in history by operating the very first public journey, not only at Crich, but in any British museum – and this milestone was remembered exactly fifty years afterwards, when remarkably, the very same tram was in service.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 12 Comments

This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 6 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

Just the one further Photo Gallery for you to enjoy this week (there should have been more but time once again seems to have run away from me, if anyone can find some extra time in a week please send it my way!):

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In Pictures: Heaton Park’s Lakeside depot opens!

Posted on Saturday 5 July 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Thursday 3rd July 2014 will go down in history as a landmark day for the Heaton Park Tramway, as it was on this day that the new Lakeside Depot was officially opened. Although trams have been stabled inside the new building since the end of last year and a few jobs remain outstanding (most notably the completion of a third track), this project is now considered largely complete and therefore the milestone was celebrated appropriately.

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Further details revealed on Long Marston test facility

Posted on Saturday 5 July 2014 by Gareth Prior

Over the past couple of weeks we have reported on the movement of two very different trams to Long Marston – Midland Metro T69 14 and Blackpool Brush Car 636 – and now Centro have provided further details of what will be happening at Long Marston. Probably most interestingly it has been confirmed that a further Midland Metro T69 will be making the trip and that Transport for Greater Manchester will also be providing two vehicles, although these will be moved to Old Dalby in Leicestershire.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink, West Midlands Metro | 2 Comments