NET wins another award

Posted on Friday 25 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

Nottingham Express Transit has won in the transport category at the Nottingham Post Environment Awards for the role it is playing in reducing car use in the city. Jamie Swift, Marketing Manager at NET, said: “We’re delighted at this latest accolade as trams are an inherently eco-friendly form of transport. We’ve also redoubled our efforts to drive home the sustainability message with strong campaigns to promote the network’s five free park and ride sites whilst urging car users to avoid peak travel time congestion by taking the tram.”

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Preston Trampower project “did not work out”

Posted on Thursday 24 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

It appears that the latest plans by the Trampower consortium have fizzled out, with proposals for a new demonstration line at Preston seemingly having been axed. The organisation’s website has now been taken offline, with anyone attempting to view it now greeted by a message explaining that the account has been suspended due to unpaid web hosting fees. It is understood that the whole idea has now been dropped by the founder of Trampower.

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Block party at Heaton Park

Posted on Wednesday 23 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The latest progress on the construction of the new Lakeside Depot at Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway, has seen the laying of breeze blocks around the perimeter of the building. Having only begun this task at the start of this week, a huge number of blocks have already been secured in place, bringing this exciting development another step towards completion!

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Crich General Manager resigns

Posted on Tuesday 22 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The Tramway Museum Society have released a shock announcement this evening that Tony Hill, the General Manager of Crich Tramway Village, has resigned from his position. This has come as a major blow to the museum as Mr Hill had only been appointed earlier this year, and was just beginning to introduce some new ideas to try and boost the attraction following several years of falling visitor numbers.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 33 Comments

Meerkats descend on Blackpool promenade!

Posted on Tuesday 22 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The presence of meerkats in Blackpool was, once upon a time, confined to those residing at Blackpool Zoo. In recent times, children (and some adults) clutching soft toy meerkats riding on trams has become increasingly common, no doubt boosted by the increased fascination with these cute creatures thanks to an incredibly successful TV advertising campaign, and for a few years a large image of an animal appeared on the side of Balloon car 711 when it advertised the local zoo. Now, the stars of these adverts have themselves paid a visit to Blackpool and one of their new adverts features two trams!

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In Pictures: Nottingham Express Transit 211 receives new advert livery

Posted on Monday 21 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

Nottingham Express Transit Incentro 211 has finally lost its advertising vinyls for “Armed Forces Day” and these have now been replaced by new advertising vinyls for Alstom – yes that’s right Alstom now have an advertising livery on a tram built by their rivals Bombardier! The pale blue based livery first made an appearance in service last week having been wrapped at Wilkinson Street.

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In Pictures: Stagecoach Supertram Engineering Works

Posted on Monday 21 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

The weekend of 19th and 20th October saw more track replacement work on Stagecoach Supertram with rail being replaced on the inbound curve approaching Shalesmoor and along the tramstop to where the track joins the road.

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Manchester Metrolink Improvement Works: Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th October

Posted on Monday 21 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

Improvement works on Manchester Metrolink over the weekend of Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October will see further changes to the service operated. On Saturday 26th there will be no trams running to Eccles or MediaCityUK with a replacement bus service being offered instead from Eccles to Deansgate-Castlefield serving all stops with the exception of Pomona. Trams will continue to run: Altrincham-Piccadilly, Ashton-under-Lyne-Bury and East Didsbury-Rochdale Railway Station. Then on Sunday 27th October trams will only be able to run: Ashton-under-Lyne-Bury and Rochdale Railway Station-Piccadilly. More replacement buses will be in operation: Altrincham-Piccadilly, East Didsbury-Victoria and Eccles-Piccadilly. Normal services are scheduled to resume from the start of service on Monday 28th October.

Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 2 Comments

In Pictures: Red Oktober day at Crich

Posted on Sunday 20 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Sunday 20th October was ‘Red Oktober’ day at Crich Tramway Village, with the museum site playing host to numerous Eastern European vehicles, as well as re-enactors in period costume. The trams themselves were not left out however, with the highlight of the day being a rare appearance outside the depot complex from Halle 902 which was even opened up so that visitors could inspect the interior of the car.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 9 Comments

This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Saturday 19 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

The main site of British Trams Online has been updated once again and as well as another three Photo Galleries we have the return of the Tram Profiles section after five years of no updates!

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Beamish trams get TLC

Posted on Friday 18 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

A number of the trams at Beamish Museum are currently undergoing workshop attention, in order to return them to a serviceable condition. Whilst it is pleasing to see work has finally commenced on Sunderland 16 after this tram had spent over a year out of service, it is unfortunate that two members of the running fleet have also had to be temporarily withdrawn for repair.

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Heritage Trams this week…

Posted on Friday 18 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

It’s time again for us to remind you just where you can travel on heritage trams in the UK and Isle of Man over the next week or so. All the information here is given in good faith but you are advised to check before travelling any significant distance with the organisations involved.

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More problems at Cornbrook as points fail twice in a week

Posted on Friday 18 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

The troublesome points at the major junction at Cornbrook have caused more problems for commuters on Manchester Metrolink, failing twice over the past week. They first failed on Monday 14th October at around 0700 and then further problems were experienced on Thursday 17th October.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 6 Comments

Major city centre tram works come to an end

Posted on Friday 18 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

The final phase of major tram construction works in Edinburgh city centre is due to come to a close this weekend with the re-opening of Shandwick Place on Saturday 19th October. This will be the first time for six years that the city centre has been free of any major tram construction works and is likely to be met with a sigh of relief by the many businesses in the area who had claimed they were adversely affected by the works.

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Stagecoach Supertram Engineering Works: Friday 18th-Sunday 20th October

Posted on Friday 18 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

The twice cancelled track replacement work at Shalesmoor on Stagecoach Supertram is finally due to go-ahead from 2000 on Friday 18th October until the end of service on Sunday 20th October. During this work the Yellow route will continue to operate between Meadowhall and Cathedral and the Blue route will run Halfway-Spring Lane and Sheffield Station-Cathedral. No other trams will be able to run with replacement buses put into place Spring Lane-Hillsborough (extended to Malin Bridge during the evening and on Sunday), High Street-Middlewood and Hillsborough-Malin Bridge-Stannington (Saturday daytime only). Services are due to resume as normal on Monday 21st October with the exception of the ongoing work on Park Grange Road.

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Corrie’s Croppers ride an open topper

Posted on Thursday 17 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Blackpool took centre stage in a special hour-long episode of ITV’s Coronation Street on Wednesday 16th October, and as expected this included an appearance by ‘Princess Alice’ 706. Determined to make the most of their remaining time together, popular character Roy Cropper took his terminally ill wife Hayley to Blackpool which included a trip along the promenade along the unique open-top Balloon car. There were also a few brief glimpses of Flexity2 trams in service, although naturally it was 706 that stole the show.

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Midland Metro Urbos 3 officially launched

Posted on Wednesday 16 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

The first of the CAF built Urbos 3 trams for Midland Metro was officially launched at Wednesbury Depot on Wednesday 16th October by Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore. Numbered 17 – following on from the last of the Ansaldo built trams – the tram arrived from Spain after a four day, 1,000 mile journey by land, sea and land.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 1 Comment

Manchester Metrolink Improvement Works: Sunday 20th October

Posted on Wednesday 16 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

Improvement works will be affecting Manchester Metrolink services again on Sunday 20th October with trams unable to operate between Timperley and Altrincham and in the vicinity of Victoria. Trams will continue to operate Bury-Crumpsall, Rochdale-Central Park, Eccles-Ashton-under-Lyne, Timperley-Piccadilly and East Didsbury-Piccadilly with buses running Altrincham-Timperley, Crumpsall-Piccadilly and Central Park-Piccadilly. All services should be back to normal by the start of service on Monday 21st October.

Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 3 Comments

Docklands Light Railway service alterations: Monday 4th-Thursday 7th November

Posted on Wednesday 16 October 2013 by Gareth Prior

Between Monday 4th and Thursday 7th November there will be a change to the normal service on the Docklands Light Railway due to an event taking place at ExCeL London. Included in these changes are no direct service between Bank and Woolwich Arsenal from 1530 to 1930 and an additional eight minute service operating between Bank and Beckton in the morning and evening peaks, between West Ham and Beckton from 0930 to 1200 and between Canning Town and Prince Regent in the morning and evening peaks.

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Railgrinder returns to use

Posted on Wednesday 16 October 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Blackpool 752, the Heaton Park Tramway’s dedicated works car, is back in action following some minor remedial attention, including the re-fitting of the large snowploughs at each end of the car on Tuesday 15th October. It will be recalled that 752 had spent two years in store at the East Lancashire Railway, but after being required to move recently, it has been decided to use the tram in connection with the current track laying work in progress at Lakeside Depot.

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