{"id":58573,"date":"2025-05-23T20:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=58573"},"modified":"2025-05-23T19:32:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:32:41","slug":"in-pictures-very-light-rail-vehicle-arrives-in-coventry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=58573","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: Very Light Rail Vehicle arrives in Coventry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having only played a starring role in Dudley a few days ago, the Very Light Rail Vehicle has been on the move again \u2013 this time on the road as its been transported to Coventry ahead of the test\/demonstration runs starting later this month.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The movement of the tram to what is really its home \u2013 and the reason why it has been built \u2013 is a major milestone in the project and comes just a few days before the first passengers will be welcomed on board it to travel along a 220 metre demonstration line.<\/p>\n<p>The first demonstration runs will get underway on Wednesday 28<sup>th<\/sup> May and there are then further runs planned Thursday 29<sup>th<\/sup>-Saturday 31<sup>st<\/sup> May, Sunday 1<sup>st<\/sup>, Wednesday 4<sup>th<\/sup>, Saturday 7<sup>th<\/sup>, Sunday 8<sup>th<\/sup>, Saturday 14<sup>th<\/sup>, Sunday 15<sup>th<\/sup> and Wednesday 18<sup>th<\/sup> June. Tickets were available to get on board these but if you didn\u2019t manage to, don\u2019t bother as they have all sold out (if you can sell something which is free that is!).<\/p>\n<p>The test runs will take place on a 220-metre test track which runs along Greyfriars Road and Queen Victoria Road. The track is the first time that the innovative modular track form has been embedded within a live urban corridor.<\/p>\n<p>Very Light Rail is being developed \u2013 with Coventry City Council and Warwick University major partners in it \u2013 with the idea of saving costs in constructing rail based transport systems. The track doesn\u2019t need as much work to install and infrastructure diversions have not been required.<\/p>\n<p>After the short test period there is no definite future for the project, although Coventry City Council are keen to develop a full system for the city \u2013 but as always there is currently no funding available for that to happen.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_58574\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1.vlr-js.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58574\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-58574\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1.vlr-js-550x310.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1.vlr-js-550x310.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1.vlr-js-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1.vlr-js.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-58574\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The vehicle sits on the test track having arrived from Dudley.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_58575\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2.vlr-js.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58575\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-58575\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2.vlr-js-310x550.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2.vlr-js-310x550.jpg 310w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2.vlr-js.jpg 721w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-58575\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another look at the vehicle with crew on board. The writing in between the rails says \u201cCOVENTRY VLR\u201d. (Both Photographs by John Savage, 23rd May 2025)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having only played a starring role in Dudley a few days ago, the Very Light Rail Vehicle has been on the move again \u2013 this time on the road as its been transported to Coventry ahead of the test\/demonstration runs &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=58573\">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":[74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58573"}],"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=58573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58576,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58573\/revisions\/58576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}