More Oldham Town Centre Metrolink works planned

Posted on Thursday 11 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Further works in connection with the Manchester Metrolink extension through Oldham Town Centre will be commencing from Monday 15th April nightly for approximately three weeks. The works will require Manchester Street roundabout closed from 1930 to 0500 each night from Monday-Friday with it reopening on Saturday mornings for the weekend. This work was originally scheduled to take place in March but had to rescheduled because  of the low temperatures and if the ground temperature falls below acceptable levels again works will be suspended. The Oldham Town Centre line is due to open in 2014.

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NET 211 advertises Armed Forces Day

Posted on Tuesday 9 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Nottingham Express Transit’s Incentro 211 has been unveiled in a new vinyl wrap livery advertising the Armed Forces Day which takes place on Saturday 29th June. The red based livery was officially launched in a ceremony at Station Street on Monday 8th April and will be carried by the tram at least until the national celebrations of Armed Forces Day. The tram previously carried a vinyl wrap livery for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

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Manchester Metrolink Engineering Works: Sunday 21st April 2013

Posted on Tuesday 9 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

On Sunday 21st April there will be further disruption to passengers on Manchester Metrolink as no services will be able to travel via Victoria all day and the line between Piccadilly Gardens and Droylsden and Timperley and Altrincham will be shut until 1000. As a result of these closures there will be replacement buses in operation for large stretches of line.

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Modified DLR services for London Marathon

Posted on Tuesday 9 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The Docklands Light Railway will run a modified service on Sunday 21st April to cater for the London Marathon. Services from Tower Gateway and Lewisham will start earlier than usual at approximately 0530 with trains from Bank and Stratford starting at 0700. Any passengers travelling between Tower Gateway/Bank and Beckton/Woolwich Arsenal are advised they will have to change frequently and so are advised to use an alternative route where possible. A normal Sunday service will start to operate from 1630. All London Marathon runners and officials are entitled to free travel until 1700 on race day.

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Rare chance to see trams in Southampton

Posted on Monday 8 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

On Sunday 5th and Monday 6th May there will be a rare opportunity for the general public to see three rather elusive trams as the Southampton Maritime Festival takes place at the city’s docks. Although it doesn’t sound as if a Maritime Festival would be the place you would expect to see three trams the Southampton Tram Project moved Southampton tramcars 11 and 38 and Lisbon 715 to a warehouse in the docks in 2011 and this will be the first time that there has been a public open day there since this happened.

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Beamish trams on parade

Posted on Sunday 7 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The highlight of the four-day ‘Our Friends Electric’ event at Beamish Museum took place on the evening of Saturday 6th April, in the shape of a cavalcade of tramcars through the Museum’s Town area. Earlier in the day, the tram service had kicked off with Glasgow 1068, making its passenger debut at the museum, and it was joined in service by Blackpool 31, Oporto 196 and Lisbon 730. Notably this was the first time that a Scottish tram had ever ran in public service at Beamish, and also the first passenger working by a Crich tram at this museum.

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Heaton Park Tramway Spring Gala on video

Posted on Sunday 7 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

We have recently been sent a link to a video on YouTube showing the recent Spring Gala at the Heaton Park Tramway, held on Sunday 24th March in very unpsringlike weather. You can view the 10 minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp0c3ZfVjzo with the video by Monopodman.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 7 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

This week on British Trams Online we bring you another couple of Photo Galleries plus there are updates on the Diary of Events and various Fleet Lists.

Gallery 353: Manchester Metrolink T68s – Ian Buck provides us with 23 shots of the T68 and T68As at work in Manchester (http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/gallery353.html)

Gallery 354: Blackpool Heritage Trams Easter 2013 – images mainly from Easter Monday of the heritage trams operating in Blackpool (http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/gallery354.html)

The Diary of Events has been updated with details of future Blackpool Heritage operation (http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/diary.html)

Plus Fleet Lists from Beamish, Birkenhead, Crich, Heaton Park and Manchester Metrolink have all been updated. You can find the index for all our Fleet Lists at http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/fleets.html)

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Leeds 6 makes new friends at Heaton Park

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

As reported previously, Leeds 6 finally departed from Beamish Museum on Thursday 4th April having enjoyed a three-year long stay there on loan from its owners, the Manchester Transport Museum Society. The tram arrived back at Heaton Park later the same morning and was soon unloaded, allowing the small team of volunteers to reassemble its lifeguards.

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First Metrolink T68A withdrawn

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The withdrawal of the T68A fleet has now started with 2006 being officially withdrawn from service on 4th April having failed at Exchange Quay the previous day before the morning rush hour. Rather than repair the fault it was decided as the withdrawal of these vehicles was due to commence imminently it should be taken out of service permanently.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 22 Comments

Heritage Trams for the next week…

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

As part of our feature “Support our Heritage Tramways” we will continue to bring you a weekly look at when and where you can travel on heritage trams across the UK. Once again if you know of any errors or omissions please let us know and we will make the change. 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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Midland Metro staff reject pay offer

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

There may be trouble ahead at Midland Metro after staff (drivers, conductors and those in the engineering department) rejected the initial pay offer from National Express which would have seen a two tier pay rise introduced (a not uncommon tactic used in business). For those earning more that £25,000 the offer was 1.4% plus an one off payment of £50 and those earning less than £25,000 the offer was 2.2% – but the Unite Union refused to recommend the offer to their members and it was rejected by 76 to 15.

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Station Street stop link to Nottingham Railway Station to close

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The footbridge which currently links the Nottingham Express Transit terminus at Station Street with the adjacent main railway station is to close from 16th April as part of the project to extend the system to Beeston, Chilwell and Clifton. The footbridge is to be removed to make way for the new bridge which is being pushed over the railway station later in the month and will carry the phase two tracks. Passengers are being advised that once the bridge is closed they will either have to use the stairs or lift to reach ground level and they can then cross Station Street at ground level.

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Special Heritage Tram week planned for Blackpool?

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

As we have reported extensively over the past couple of weeks the Blackpool Heritage Tramway operation for 2013 commenced over the long Easter weekend and will operate again on the two Bank Holidays in May and then at the end of August before daily operation during the Illuminations. Unfortunately the local newspaper for Blackpool, The Gazette, have only just published a story about the heritage tram operation for this year – over a week after it started! But the story they have published does contain an interesting snippet – there is to be a special heritage tram week announced later this summer.

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Manchester Metrolink Engineering Works: Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th April 2013

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Engineering works will be taking place on both Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th April on Manchester Metrolink with the South Manchester Line to St Werburgh’s Road closed on both days with the East Manchester Line to Droylsden and the Altrincham line from Altrincham-Timperley closed in the morning on Sunday 14th April. Replacement bus services will be in operation.

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DLR celebrates after carrying one hundred million passengers in a year

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

The early afternoon of Sunday 31st March saw a key milestone reached on the Docklands Light Railway as the one hundred millionth passenger was carried on the network in the tax year. This was the first time that the network had carried as many passengers in one year and the milestone was reached thanks to the London Olympics which saw the busiest ever day for the system on 3rd August when over half a million passengers were carried.

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Metrolink Access Guide published

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

Transport for Greater Manchester has published an access guide for users of Manchester Metrolink. Although the guide has been created with the needs of disabled passengers in mind it is a handy document for all users of the network as it includes all you need to know about buying tickets, travel passes, using the stops and how to provide customer feedback.

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Car & Tram collide at Coombe Lane

Posted on Saturday 6 April 2013 by Gareth Prior

A collision between a car and a tram at the junction between Coombe Lane and Oaks Road on London Tramlink caused services to be part suspended for a time on Wednesday 3rd April whilst the incident was cleared. The Police and Ambulance service attended the incident which happened just before 1300, the occupant of the car was treated for their injuries and then taken to hospital but there were no reported injuries for passengers or the driver on the tram. Whilst the incident was cleared trams ran as far as Lloyd Park from Wimbledon and a shuttle service ran between Addington Village and New Addington with local buses accepting Tramlink tickets as an alternative.

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Second electric friend arrives at Beamish

Posted on Friday 5 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

After a series of trials and tribulations, things finally seem to be looking up for the ‘Our Friends Electric’ event celebrating 40 years of tram operation at Beamish Museum. Friday 5th April witnessed the arrival of Glasgow 1068 from Crich after a series of unavoidable delays, whilst fellow visiting tram Lisbon 730 from Birkenhead has now been pressed into service at the museum and is proving its worth on the working tramway.

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Lisbon 730 replaces Leeds 6 at Beamish

Posted on Thursday 4 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Wednesday 3rd April was a hectic day at Beamish Museum, with Lisbon 730 arriving on site ready for the tramway’s 40th anniversary celebrations starting the following day. No sooner had 730 arrived and been moved into the tram depot, then attention turned towards Leeds 6 which was loaded up ready for return to Heaton Park, ending its three year stay in the North East.

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Posted in Beamish Tramway, Heaton Park Tramway | 5 Comments