{"id":530,"date":"2012-03-31T14:21:17","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T14:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=530"},"modified":"2012-03-31T17:47:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T17:47:27","slug":"variotram-2554-enters-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=530","title":{"rendered":"Variotram 2554 enters service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few weeks enthusiasts have been debating whether Croydon\u2019s Variotrams or Blackpool\u2019s Flexity2s would enter fare paying passenger service first \u2013 well now that question has been answered with <strong>Variotram 2554<\/strong> carrying passengers briefly on Friday 30<sup>th<\/sup> March. This of course means Croydon \u201cwins\u201d by five days with the first Flexity2 planned to carry passengers on Wednesday 4<sup>th <\/sup>April.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>2554 <\/strong>left depot shortly after 1500 on Friday 30th March and ran from Therapia Lane to East Croydon, East Croydon to Wimbledon, Wimbledon to East Croydon and then returned to Depot (it is believed it did this out of service). This was the first occurrence of a Variotram carrying passengers in Croydon \u2013 fully a month after Transport for London had originally planned for this to happen.<\/p>\n<p>The runs for <strong>2554 <\/strong>immediately followed the Variotrams being approved for operation between Wimbledon and East Croydon &#8211; they are currently not permitted to operate any further east although it is hoped this will follow soon. It is believed that a Variotram will also be in use between Wimbledon and East Croydon on Monday 2nd April &#8211; but don&#8217;t blame us if you travel specifically for one and it doesn&#8217;t appear!<\/p>\n<p>It might even be that the next tram to enter passenger service is not a Blackpool Flexity2 with Manchester Metrolink M5000 <strong>3025<\/strong> having recently received the ATS equipment which will enable it to operate on the current network. It is expected to enter service in the next few days. Then on Wednesday 4<sup>th <\/sup>April at least six further new trams should enter service in Blackpool when the upgraded tramway finally opens to the public.<\/p>\n<p><em>With thanks to members of the Croydon Tramlink Yahoo! Group &amp; Graham Feakins\u00a0for information contained in this article.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_535\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=535\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-535\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-535\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-535\" title=\"2553+2554\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2553+2554-550x412.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2553+2554-550x412.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2553+2554-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2553+2554.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-535\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On its first day in passenger service - and with lovely sunshine too! - 2554 is seen on the central platform at East Croydon before it heads back westwards on 30th March 2012. As luck would have it the last of the original Bombardier trams is alongside with 2553 heading to Wimbledon. (Photo: Michael Steward)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_536\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=536\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-536\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-536\" title=\"2554\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2554-550x412.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2554-550x412.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2554-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/2554.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-536\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of 2554 at East Croydon on 31st March 2012. (Photo: Michael Steward)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few weeks enthusiasts have been debating whether Croydon\u2019s Variotrams or Blackpool\u2019s Flexity2s would enter fare paying passenger service first \u2013 well now that question has been answered with Variotram 2554 carrying passengers briefly on Friday 30th March. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=530\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"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=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}