There has been movement in the Manchester Metrolink fleet in recent weeks with further M5000s entering the operational fleet whilst the future is looking rather bleak for the six T68As as they are now restricted to the Bury-Altrincham direct service and will only be used on that if there are insufficient M5000s available.<\/p>\n
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On the M5000 front 50 of the class are now fitted with the ATS\/VRS equipment for use on the entire network with 3047<\/strong> and 3046<\/strong> becoming the latest members to carry\u00a0 passengers. However that news has been tempered slightly as 3013 <\/strong>is likely to be out of service for a while following the collision damage it suffered at Weaste this week. On the delivery front 3063<\/strong> arrived at Queens Road depot in late January and after initial commissioning work has already been moved to Trafford depot for further storage.<\/p>\n There have been no further withdrawals of T68s and T68As recently but as mentioned above the use of T68As is likely to be a rare occurrence in the future. Following the opening of the East Manchester Line as far as Droylsden this class of tram is now confined to use on the Bury-Altrincham direct services and will be last choice on these diagrams. Currently there are ten diagrams on this service of which six should be double T68s and the remaining four are scheduled to be single M5000s. It is only if there is a shortage of M5000s that T68As are likely to be used on the service and so if you see a T68A out and about the advice is get it whilst you can!<\/p>\n The latest official word from Transport for Greater Manchester (the performance update report presented to the Committee on Friday 8th February) suggests that further T68 withdrawals will commence from the end of March although this report has been unreliable in the past regarding withdrawals so it remains to be seen whether, in fact, There has been movement in the Manchester Metrolink fleet in recent weeks with further M5000s entering the operational fleet whilst the future is looking rather bleak for the six T68As as they are now restricted to the Bury-Altrincham direct service … Continue reading
\nfurther withdrawals happen in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"