{"id":2829,"date":"2013-01-19T19:10:04","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T19:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2013-01-19T19:10:04","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T19:10:04","slug":"metrolink-t68-1025-becomes-twelfth-to-be-withdrawn-%e2%80%93-with-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2829","title":{"rendered":"Metrolink T68 1025 becomes twelfth to be withdrawn \u2013 with a twist!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>12 of the original T68 vehicles on Manchester Metrolink have now been withdrawn from passenger service with <strong>1025<\/strong> the latest to be taken out of service, although this time it has\u00a0a more secure future as it is to be used for winter ice breaking duties. This now concludes the originally announced withdrawal program although it is not expected to be that long before more examples are taken out of service.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>1025 <\/strong>ran its last passenger duties on Tuesday 15<sup>th<\/sup> January when it was utilised on Bury-Altrincham direct services. It was swiftly moved into the workshops at Queen\u2019s Road depot where it has received a special pantograph for winter ice breaking duties. Those of you have been reading our news blog recently will be aware that Manchester Metrolink run \u201cice breaking\u201d trams when temperatures are forecast to reach a certain level overnight so that when passenger services start in the morning the trams can easily draw power from the overhead wires. The special pantograph on <strong>1025<\/strong> will enable this vehicle to undertake these duties and it is also retaining its TMS and VRS equipment to allow it operate on most of the network. It is not known whether it will be able to be used on all lines as previously T68s have not been permitted to travel on the Oldham and Rochdale lines \u2013 ironically the line which was part suspended earlier this month as a result of ice breaker trams not running!<\/p>\n<p><strong>1025<\/strong> becomes the first second generation UK tram to be withdrawn from service and to find another use as a works tram, a practice which was, of course, very popular in the days of first generation tramways with many now preserved trams owing their existence to this very practice. It could also mean that a T68 is guaranteed to live on a bit longer which may allow preservation groups extra time to find the money and space to house one of the original second generation trams in this country.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile a number of M5000s have entered passenger service other the past couple of weeks with 48 examples now being fitted with TMS and VRS equipment to allow them to operate on the complete Manchester Metrolink network. The two latest M5000s to enter service have been <strong>3048<\/strong> and <strong>3049<\/strong> with <strong>3047<\/strong> currently receiving the equipment to also join the operational fleet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe first 12\u201d \u2013 T68 withdrawal dates<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1011 \u2013 18<sup>th<\/sup> April 2012<\/p>\n<p>1004 \u2013 16<sup>th<\/sup> May 2012<\/p>\n<p>1008 \u2013 14<sup>th<\/sup> June 2012<\/p>\n<p>1005 \u2013 22<sup>nd<\/sup> June 2012<\/p>\n<p>1001 \u2013 7<sup>th<\/sup> August 2012<\/p>\n<p>1018 \u2013 9<sup>th<\/sup> August 2012<\/p>\n<p>1006 \u2013 30<sup>th<\/sup> August 2012<\/p>\n<p>1010 \u2013 2<sup>nd<\/sup> September 2012<\/p>\n<p>1015 \u2013 20<sup>th<\/sup> September 2012<\/p>\n<p>1019 \u2013 27<sup>th<\/sup> September 2012<\/p>\n<p>1020 \u2013 2<sup>nd<\/sup> November 2012<\/p>\n<p>1025 \u2013 15<sup>th<\/sup> January 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12 of the original T68 vehicles on Manchester Metrolink have now been withdrawn from passenger service with 1025 the latest to be taken out of service, although this time it has\u00a0a more secure future as it is to be used &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2829\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2830,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions\/2830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}