Come and “Like” us on Facebook!

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

British Trams Online is now on Facebook! As some of you will be aware we have had a Group on Facebook for a number of years but the drawback of this has been that you have to be a member of Facebook to even view the content. We have now created a “page” which is visible to not only members of Facebook but also to anyone who has the internet. The “page” will be used mainly in the same way as we used the Group with news about when we update the website and the “Live from…” feature will also be included. If you are a member of Facebook you will be able to “Like” us (please do we don’t want to be really unpopular!) and once you have done this you will able to comment on the page. You can find our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/BritishTramsOnline.

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Supertram 111 receives fleet numbers

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

Following on from the application of fleet numbers to celebrity liveried 120, all over
adverted 111 has now also received fleet numbers on each end. 111 retains its long standing advert for fellow Stagecoach subsidiary East Midlands Trains.

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Memorandum of Understanding for future Midland Metro extensions signed

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

Centro and the City of Birmingham City Council have signed an agreement which should
make any future extensions of Midland Metro slightly easier – although the usual hoops will still have to be jumped through. The Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties “recognises and acknowledges the Council’s support to facilitate Midland Metro development on land and highway that it owns”.

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Midland Metro Easter Services

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

A revised service will operate over the Easter weekend on the Midland Metro.

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Easter services on Nottingham Express Transit

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

Services on lines 1 and 2 of Nottingham Express Transit will be revised over the Easter
weekend.

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More Olympic test timetables for DLR: 20th to 24th April

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

The Docklands Light Railway have announced that they will be operating modified
timetables again between Friday 20th and Tuesday 24th April as they continue to test their proposed service for the Olympic and Paralympic 2012 London games. Once again several different timetables will be in operation during this period which is further complicated by the fact the London Marathon takes place on Sunday 22nd April.

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NET Phase Two information events a “success”

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

Nottingham City Council have heralded recent information events on Nottingham Express Transit Phase Two as a success with nearly 1700 people having attended them. The events were organised to allow people who live or work near the extensions to find out more about the project and what work would be undertaken when. It also allowed them to ask questions of the Council, Tramlink Nottingham and the Taylor Woodrow Alstom Joint
Venture.  Continue reading →

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Family Group ticket available for Easter travel on NET

Posted on Saturday 31 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

In the same week that NET have revealed fare rises they have also announced that the Family Group ticket – originally offered during the February half term – will be available between 31st March and 15th April. This ticket allows a family of up to five (including 2 adults) a days unlimited travel on the trams for £5.  Continue reading →

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Ghost trams sighted in Blackpool

Posted on Friday 30 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Following countless delays, the much-hyped ‘ghost running’ of Blackpool’s new Flexity2 trams finally got underway on Friday 30th March, albeit not quite as expected. Prior to this day, only two of the new trams had even run to Fleetwood Ferry – 003 was the first on Tuesday 27th March, with 009 following for an official inspection on Thursday 29th. This set the scene for the real evaluation period to begin on the Friday, with an impressive turnout of eight different trams in use.

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Birkenhead 20 arrives at Beamish

Posted on Friday 30 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, welcomed its latest visiting tramcar on Friday 30th March when Birkenhead 20 arrived in the North East. The tram, which normally runs at Birkenhead, has been loaned to the Museum by its owners the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society for the annual Great North Steam Fair at Beamish, which takes place between 12th and 15th April this year.

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Railcoach restoration restarts

Posted on Wednesday 28 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

This week is shaping up to be an exciting one for British tramway preservation, and the Lancastrian Transport Trust are playing a key part in this. The Trust have announced that work has now restarted on the reconstruction of English Electric Railcoach 279, one of their large collection of vintage Blackpool trams. The car is currently based at Brinwell Road and is now thought to be staying there for the time being, despite the LTT deciding not to continue with their lease of the premises.

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Spring news from Heaton Park

Posted on Wednesday 28 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Spring 2012 has turned out to be quite eventful for Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway, with a special event day held on Sunday 25th March to celebrate the tramway’s 32nd anniversary. The next day however was even more significant, as a small ceremony was held to mark the first stage in the project to build a new tram depot at the park, in which to house the Manchester Transport Museum Society’s growing collection of trams.

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Trams finally return to Fleetwood

Posted on Tuesday 27 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

It’s been a long wait – a very, very long wait in fact – but trams are finally up and running through the streets of Fleetwood for the first time since 2009. The Blackpool tramway upgrade has caused particularly noticeable disruption at the northern end of the line, which closed to trams after the 2009 illuminations, but test running along the entire length of the system has finally started just a week before the tramway is due to re-open to the public.

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London 159 also comes alive!

Posted on Tuesday 27 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

The last week of March 2012 is turning out to be good one for Britain’s preserved trams. Mere hours after Blackpool Boat car 233 performed its first test run at Beamish Museum, it was the turn of London United 159 to make history. On Tuesday 27th March, the tram made its first tentative moves around the depot yard at Crich under its own power.

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Boat 605 comes alive!

Posted on Monday 26 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

A major milestone in the transformation of Blackpool ‘Boat’ 605 – to be known in future by its original fleet number 233 – occured on Monday 26th March, when the tram made its first test run around the Beamish museum tramway. The car has of course been loaned to Beamish from the Lancastrian Transport Trust, and is currently being prepared for a repaint into its original green and cream livery, with sponsorship from British Trams Online.

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Open top trams spring into action

Posted on Sunday 25 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

British summer time is officially here, and it has been greeted with some glorious spring weather. Happily some of our heritage tramways have been quick to exploit the last few sunny weekends with one open-top tramcar seeing extensive use already this year, whilst others are prepared for service as the core season approaches.

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Buses invade Rigby Road depot

Posted on Sunday 25 March 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Following on from lots of speculation at the end of last year, Blackpool Transport’s old tram depot at Rigby Road was invaded by a rubber-tyred army on Friday 23rd March, when a number of City Sightseeing buses moved in to the tram shed. With an ever decreasing number of trams residing there, the time was perfect for buses to make their move and the trams were clearly too few in number to defend their territory, ultimately having to surrender the lower numbered tracks in the depot to the City Sightseeing bus fleet.

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2556 makes it three Variotrams for Tramlink

Posted on Saturday 24 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

The third of the Variotrams for London Tramlink was delivered to Therapia Lane depot in the early hours of Friday 23rd March. Numbered 2556 this marks the halfway point in deliveries of these extra vehicles for Tramlink as the original order was for six trams to supplement the current fleet.

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Metrolink Fleet Update

Posted on Saturday 24 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

Further examples of the M5000 trams on Manchester Metrolink have entered service in recent weeks following the fitting of equipment enabling them to operate on the current system but despite rumours of the demise of the first of the T68s they are all still available for service with no withdrawals confirmed as yet.

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Four tramways to feature in Olympic Torch Relay

Posted on Saturday 24 March 2012 by Gareth Prior

Full details of the route for the Olympic Torch Relay in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has recently been unveiled and amongst the various forms of transport which will be used four different tramways on the mainland and Isle of Man will be used to move the torch. These are the Blackpool Tramway, tramway at the Black Country Living Museum, Douglas Horse Tramway and Manx Electric Railway.  Continue reading →

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