Extra early morning services for Sheffield Half Marathon

Posted on Saturday 5 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

Stagecoach Supertram will be operating extra early morning trams on Sunday 6th April to help participants in the Sheffield Half Marathon get to the start line in time. This will include a tram running direct to Arena from Halfway (departing Halfway at 0612 and arriving at Arena at 0703). The Sheffield Half Marathon will start and finish at the Don Valley Bowl which is easily accessible from the stop at Arena. A special ticket for entrants in the race (available via a voucher with your runner number) will also be available for just £2.50.

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Blackpool and Beamish get recruiting

Posted on Friday 4 April 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Two of the most prominent tram operators in the UK are currently recruiting for positions which will enable the successful applicants the opportunity to shape upcoming developments at the respective locations in a big way. For Blackpool Transport, the search is now officially underway for the person to replace Trevor Roberts as head of the company, whilst Beamish Museum are inviting applicants to join the Transport & Industry department in an exciting new role.

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Heritage Trams this week…

Posted on Friday 4 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

This is your one stop guide to when and where you can ride on heritage trams in the UK and Isle of Man. The past couple of days have seen both the East Anglia Transport Museum and the Manx Electric Railway open for the first time in 2014 and they will joined by the Snaefell Mountain Railway on Friday 11th April. And that isn’t where first operations of the year will stop for this month as on Friday 18th April we have the first Heritage Service in Blackpool for 2014.

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Blackpool’s heritage fleet prepare for Easter

Posted on Wednesday 2 April 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Work on preparing the operational heritage trams at Blackpool for service over the Easter weekend – which is now just over two weeks away! – is now at a well advanced stage. As well as electrical servicing at Starr Gate, other preparatory work is also being carried out in the Fitting Shop at Rigby Road with Twin set 272+T2 currently being worked on. Meanwhile, Boat 227 remains at Starr Gate but will presumably be returned to its normal base shortly, in case of good weather over Easter.

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Metrolink T68s: enter the scrapman

Posted on Wednesday 2 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

The day that we all knew was coming has finally arrived, the mass scrapping of the withdrawn T68 and T68A fleet of Manchester Metrolink has started. A low loader arrived at Trafford Depot on Wednesday 2nd April to take 2004 to meet its maker in Rotherham with the well known company C F Booth Ltd having won the contract to dispose of the LRVs.

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In Pictures: Midland Metro Urbos 3’s show off

Posted on Wednesday 2 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

The new Midland Metro Urbos 3 trams are starting to see a bit more action with 20 being used as a part of a filming assignment for the BBC local news on Wednesday 2nd April whilst it has also been announced that one of the class is to be shown off to the public at Birmingham Snow Hill on Saturday 5th April.

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Picture in Time 16: Budapest 2576+2577

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2014 by Andrew Waddington

For our latest trip down memory lane, British Trams Online goes back almost two decades to the mid-nineties, and a visit to the short-lived ‘Transperience’ attraction sited near Bradford. This multi-million pound museum featured a number of working vehicle exhibits, including Budapest twin set 2576+2577, and that is the subject of this historic image.

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Sunderland 16’s completion delayed

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The long-running remedial work on Sunderland 16 to return this attractive tram to service at Beamish Museum is still ongoing, thanks to a number of unforeseen circumstances which have conspired to delay the completion of this project. It had been hoped that 16 would be ready for traffic by Easter, but this now looks extremely unlikely thanks to the latest setbacks.

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In Pictures: Stadlers across the Tramlink network

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

As we reported at the weekend the Stadler built Variotrams have started to see use across the London Tramlink network rather than being confined to Lines 1 and 4 to Elmers End. This was the case on Tuesday 1st April when all six of the trams were in action with all the routes seeing a Stadler in service meaning that it was possible to traverse the complete Tramlink network on a Variotram – a pretty rare occurrence up until recently. On this day 2554 and 2559 were on lines 1/4 (Elmers End), 2555, 2557 and 2558 were on line 2 (Beckenham Junction) and 2556 was in use on line 3 (New Addington-Wimbledon).

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More changes ahead for Manchester Metrolink services

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

The next few months will see more changes to Manchester Metrolink services with the lines south of the city being affected as a result of work on the new signalling system and also in changing the layout at Deansgate-Castlefield. The first of these temporary line closures will take place on Saturday 5th April with further closures on Sunday 13th, Saturday 19th, Sunday 20th April, Sunday 11th, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th May.

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In Pictures: Supertram rail replacement work continues

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2014 by Gareth Prior

The first stage of the second phase of rail replacement works on Stagecoach Supertram has been continuing over the start of this week with work taking place on Langsett Road inbound just beyond the exit to Hillsborough Interchange. It looks as if this phase of works will mainly see just one track tackled at a time to allow the road to remain open for traffic, especially considering a large number of replacement buses are operating to make up for the closure of Supertram between Shalesmoor and Middlewood/Malin Bridge.

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The Starr Gate snowplough swap

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The two Blackpool Balloon cars fitted with snowplough equipment for the winter period have recently switched places, with car 723 returning to Rigby Road following several weeks outstationed at Starr Gate depot. In its place, fellow plough tram 701 has now transferred to Starr Gate along with the illuminated Frigate 736 which enjoyed a rare trip to the southern end of the tramway on 28th March.

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In Pictures: Heaton Park Tramway re-opens for business

Posted on Monday 31 March 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Just one day after the Crich Tramway Village re-opened for the 2014 season, it was the turn of the Heaton Park Tramway in Manchester to resume operating for another year. Sunday 30th March also marked the start of the Great British summertime with the changing of the clocks, and this was very much in evidence on what was a glorious spring day, encouraging many people to visit the park and enjoy a vintage tram ride.

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Rochdale Town Centre line opens

Posted on Monday 31 March 2014 by Gareth Prior

3049 has become the first tram to carry passengers in Rochdale Town Centre for over 80 years (12th November 1932 was the closure date of Rochdale Corporation Tramways) with the official opening of the latest Manchester Metrolink extension. The first departure from Rochdale Town Centre was shortly after 0600 on Monday 31st March and now means that the Metrolink network has reached 48.5 miles (78km) with 77 stops open to the public.

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In Pictures: Nottingham Express Transit Citadis 226 arrives

Posted on Sunday 30 March 2014 by Gareth Prior

The eleventh Alstom Citadis tram for Nottingham Express Transit, 226, arrived in the city during the early hours of Monday 24th March. This now means that half of the order of 22 are in Nottingham with the remaining deliveries expected to be completed over the next few months (on average a new tram seems to arrive every fortnight from the Alstom factory in Barcelona). Daytime testing and driver training remains confined to the Wilkinson Street Depot where you can often see one shunting up and down the yard as far as the limit of shunt. It is expected that daytime on street testing will start at some point this spring before an entry into service either late spring or early summer.

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In Pictures: First day of 2014 season at Crich

Posted on Sunday 30 March 2014 by Gareth Prior

Yesterday we reported on the first day of the 2014 season at the Crich Tramway Village and now with huge thanks to Hazel Quarmby we are able to bring you a selection of images from the first day when Chesterfield 7 operated the first passenger journey of the year. As well as 7 these photos feature Blackpool 762, Leeds 180, Berlin 223 006-4 and Glasgow 1068.

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British Trams Online this week…

Posted on Sunday 30 March 2014 by Gareth Prior

We have another three new Photo Galleries for you on the main site update of British Trams Online this week alongside the rest of our usual updates:

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Crich kick off the 2014 season

Posted on Saturday 29 March 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The first proper open day at Crich Tramway Village in 2014 was Saturday 29th March, when a three tram service operated, as is scheduled to run every day the museum is open this year. Although a limited open day had taken place on 1st February to allow enthusiasts to observe various unusual shunting movements, this was the first chance for visitors to ride on a tram at Crich after the long winter lay-off.

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Shadow running starts in Rochdale town centre

Posted on Saturday 29 March 2014 by Gareth Prior

Thursday 27th March saw the first of four planned days of shadow running in Rochdale town centre ahead of the opening of the line to the public on Monday 31st March. As with previous shadow running on Manchester Metrolink the LRVs are running in service as far as the current terminus of Rochdale Railway Station where all passengers have to alight before the vehicle continues its journey into Rochdale town centre.

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Details released for Isle of Man’s Rush Hour on the Railways

Posted on Saturday 29 March 2014 by Gareth Prior

Isle of Man Transport have now released full details of the plans for their first major special event of 2014: Rush Hour on the Railways. In previous years this event has been concentrated on the Isle of Man Steam Railway but in a welcome development for 2014 the Manx Electric Railway is also playing a major role with both Easter Sunday and Easter Monday featuring events on the MER which will celebrate its 121st birthday this year.

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