{"id":2188,"date":"2012-10-28T13:54:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T12:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2012-10-28T13:54:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T12:54:36","slug":"transport-secretary-of-state-visits-crich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2188","title":{"rendered":"Transport Secretary of State visits Crich"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Derbyshire Dales MP Patrick McLoughlin, who is also the Secretary of State for Transport, paid a brief visit to the Crich Tramway Village on Friday 26th October. During his time at the museum, the MP took to the controls of <strong>Southampton 45<\/strong> for a rare opportunity to drive one of the museum&#8217;s vintage tramcars.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Mr McLoughlin was also treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the TMS library and the George Stephenson Workshop exhibition area, before taking lunch in the Red Lion. After the visit, Mr McLoughlin commented: &#8220;I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to visit the Crich Tramway Village in the heart of the beautiful Derbyshire countryside.\u00a0 I have been incredibly impressed by the hard work and dedication of the staff and volunteers who make this such a valuable tourist attraction and education centre, both for Derbyshire and the country as a whole.\u00a0 I am sure that their dedication to preserving our proud transport heritage and sharing their knowledge with others will see the museum continue to go from strength to strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Presumably this was a social visit from the Secretary of State, and the TMS are not seeking support to expand their operations with an extended tramway and a fleet of modern LRVs!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2189\" style=\"width: 477px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=2189\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2189\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2189\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2189\" title=\"45 Secretary of State visit\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/45-Secretary-of-State-visit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"467\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MP Patrick McLoughlin is seen taking to the handles of Southampton 45, under close supervision from a Driving Instructor. (Photo courtesey of the Crich Tramway Village Blog)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Derbyshire Dales MP Patrick McLoughlin, who is also the Secretary of State for Transport, paid a brief visit to the Crich Tramway Village on Friday 26th October. During his time at the museum, the MP took to the controls of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2188\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/2191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}