Discounted travel to Derby for tram users

Posted on Saturday 2 March 2013 by Gareth Prior

Anyone who has a day ticket for the trams in Nottingham will now be able to enjoy discounted travel to Derby as part of a new offer. Trent Barton are offering holders of day tickets and Kangaroo tickets the chance to purchase a day return on the express Red Arrow bus service for just £4.50 – a saving of £3.50 on normal prices. All passengers have to do to take advantage of this offer is to show their NET day ticket or Kangaroo ticket to the bus driver.

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Metrolink opens to Rochdale

Posted on Thursday 28 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Manchester Metrolink has opened its latest extension with the line between Shaw & Crompton and Rochdale carrying its first passengers on Thursday 28th February. M5000 3016 had the honour of forming the first service departing Trafford Bar before 0500 on a dark and chilly morning.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 18 Comments

Summer deadline for Liverpool 245 restoration

Posted on Thursday 28 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Following an absence of around five decades, it should soon be possible to ride on a Liverpool ‘Baby Grand’ tram once again, with the restoration of Liverpool 245 for operation on the Birkenhead heritage tramway approaching completion. An ambitious completion target of July 31st has been set in connection with the Heritage Lottery Fund, who are providing financial support towards the project to return this tram to full running order.

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Beamish trams on parade for 40th anniversary

Posted on Wednesday 27 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Further details have now been released, concerning plans for Beamish Museum’s ambitious ‘Great North Festival of Transport’ which is being held during April 2013. This includes a four-day event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Beamish tramway, which will feature a number of special guest trams from other museums. The highlight of this event, named ‘Our Friends Electric’, is likely to be a procession of trams on Saturday 6th April.

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Annual NET survey shows customer satisfaction remains at 94%

Posted on Wednesday 27 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Nottingham Express Transit is still enjoying some of the highest levels of customer satisfaction according to the latest survey conducted on behalf of NET by Osiris MR with overall customer satisfaction remaining at 94% for the third consecutive survey. All categories in the 2012 survey have seen a rise showing that customers (passengers!) seem to be enjoying the service on offer across the network.

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Trams return to service at Birkenhead

Posted on Monday 25 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

After more than four months of enforced inactivity, the Birkenhead heritage tramway has finally re-opened for business, with Saturday 23rd February becoming the first operating day for the line in 2013. It may be remembered that the tramway was forced to close shortly after last year’s annual Bus & Tram Show in October as improved safety procedures needed to be implemented – and this lengthy task has now been completed.

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Clay Cross clearout?

Posted on Sunday 24 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

For many years, the number of items stored at the Tramway Museum Society’s Clay Cross store has steadily increased, as more trams have been added to the national collection. This has recently reached the point where the storage premises are full to bursting point, and so it is pleasing to see that this long-running trend looks set to be reversed during 2013, with some of the Society’s hidden gems potentially facing a more positive future.

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Manx Electric Railway prepares for 2013 season

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

It is just two weeks until the 2013 operating season on the Manx Electric Railway officially commences (if you ignore the bus strike services last month) and this year looks like being a good year for the line as it will be celebrating its 120th anniversary with a celebratory day on Saturday 7th September.

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Flexity2 002 becomes first to be named

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Blackpool’s Flexity2 002 has become the first of the class to be honoured with a name following a ceremony earlier this month at Starr Gate depot. Alderman Edmund Wynne’s name is now carried on the end dashes of the tram – although the decision has not been met with widespread approval from some enthusiasts.

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In Pictures: Double M5000s run for Manchester City match

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Last Sunday (17th February) saw an enhanced service operate on the East Manchester Line for the first Manchester City match to take place at the Etihad Stadium since the line opened. This service included double M5000s in use – their first significant use since the Olympic football took place at Old Trafford last year. The general consensus of opinion seems to be that operations seemed to work fairly well on match day with the crowds after the match being dispersed quite easily.

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Council to look at free services on Edinburgh Trams for launch

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Councillors from the City of Edinburgh Council have agreed to look at the possibility of running free services when the tramway starts operation next year following requests from businesses in the City Centre who feel they have been blighted by years of disruption caused by the construction of the line.

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Another bridge prepares to be put in place for NET Phase Two

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Sunday 24th February will mark another milestone in the construction of Phase Two of
Nottingham Express Transit as a bridge is put into place over the railway line at Lenton using state of the art techniques. The steel Lenton Lane Bridge will be driven into position across the railway using four 40 wheel vehicles called Self Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs).

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Manchester Metrolink Engineering Work: Sunday 3rd March

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

More engineering works take place on Manchester Metrolink on Sunday 3rd March when no trams will run between Eccles and Piccadilly Station. A replacement bus service will be in operation between Eccles and Trafford Bar which will call at all Metrolink stops with the exception of Pomona (any passengers for Pomona are advised to use the bus stops at Exchange Quay). Passengers are then able to resume their journey by tram from Trafford Bar.

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NEETT begin work on a new tram depot

Posted on Saturday 23 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

After a period of apparent silence for several months, it was beginning to look like little was being achieved by the North Eastern Electrical Traction Trust – but it has now been announced that, behind the scenes, this was far from true. The organisation, which owns a number of trams and a Bradford trolleybus, has now started work on a new depot building in which to house its collection, having raised all of the required funds to complete this project, less than a year after it began an appeal to do so!

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A commercial break for Stockport 5

Posted on Friday 22 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The winter work being carried out on Stockport 5 by volunteers at Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway, in prepartion for the trams spring break at Beamish Museum, took a major step forwards on Tuesday 19th February. On this day, the new vinyl advertisements were applied to the car’s decency panels, totally transforming its appearance.

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Warrington 2 restoration up for debate

Posted on Friday 22 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The long-running restoration of the last surviving Warrington tramcar by members of the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society has taken an interesting twist, with the discovery of new evidence regarding the tram’s past prompting some discussion regarding the condition in which it will ultimately be restored. Warrington 2 has been under attention by the expert volunteers at Birkenhead for several years but there is still some uncertainty regarding how it will look.

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Crich kick off the 2013 season

Posted on Friday 22 February 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Saturday 16th February saw the start of the 2013 operating season at Crich Tramway Village. Although the site had been open to visitors on a number of occasions already this year, the emphasis had been placed on various activity sessions with no tram rides offered. However, with the process of commissioning the operating fleet for another busy year well underway, that all changed when the first passengers of 2013 were carried.

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Rochdale here we come!

Posted on Wednesday 20 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

The latest Manchester Metrolink extension has now been given an official opening date with the news that the line between Shaw & Crompton and Rochdale Railway Station will open to passengers from Thursday 28th February – little over a week away. The full shadow running started operation on Monday 18th February and has been continuing all week and this has obviously not shown any problems so TfGM are confident enough to go public with the opening date. The first revenue earning service will depart Rochdale at 0559 and the first tram to Rochdale will be departing Victoria at 0608. Unlike the East Manchester Line there will be no free preview service for locals before opening.

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DDRG visit Rochdale line as opening date approaches

Posted on Tuesday 19 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

Members of Transport for Greater Manchester’s Disability Design Reference Group (DDRG) have recently become some of the first passengers to be carried on Metrolink’s extension of the Oldham and Rochdale line between Shaw & Crompton and Rochdale Railway Station as they took a trip on a test tram to inspect the new stops to see how they meet the needs of disabled people.

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Adham breaks the record in Nottingham

Posted on Tuesday 19 February 2013 by Gareth Prior

As we reported last week urban transport enthusiast Adham Fisher, from Leicester, was attempting to break his own record for the length of time it took him to visit every stop on Nottingham Express Transit at the weekend – and he did it, taking around five minutes off his previous time.

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