{"id":5866,"date":"2013-12-03T18:59:55","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T18:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=5866"},"modified":"2013-12-04T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T12:24:07","slug":"another-two-t68s-withdrawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=5866","title":{"rendered":"Another two T68s withdrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Manchester Metrolink T68 fleet is now down to seven examples following the withdrawal of 1013<\/strong> and 1026<\/strong> from service. Both vehicles were officially withdrawn from service on Monday 2nd December although 1026<\/strong> had not operated for a couple of weeks after a compressor failure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1013<\/strong> and 1026 <\/strong>become the eighteenth and nineteenth T68s to be taken out of service and it is looking increasingly like the remaining examples will not be operational for much longer. The number of diagrams which T68s can operate on now is decreasing rapidly and indeed on Tuesday 3rd December only 1017<\/strong> was in service on the Eccles route.<\/p>\n

Both 1013<\/strong> and 1026<\/strong> have already been transferred to the ever increasing scrap line at Trafford Depot. As mentioned above 1026 <\/strong>had been out of service for a couple of weeks with a compressor failure but 1013<\/strong> was operating up to its withdrawal with its last journeys being on Monday 2nd December.<\/p>\n

The operational T68 fleet now consists of 1007<\/strong>, 1009<\/strong>, 1012<\/strong>, 1016<\/strong>, 1017<\/strong>, 1022<\/strong> and 1023<\/strong> with T68As 2001<\/strong> and 2003<\/strong> also available for service. It is pretty obvious but the advice now is definitely if you want to experience the T68s in service on Metrolink you better do it quickly before they are all withdrawn and just a memory!<\/p>\n

With two further T68s now out of service an additional M5000 \u2013 3068<\/strong> \u2013 has joined the non ATS\/VRS fleet which are regularly used on the Eccles and MediaCityUK services. There are now 11 M5000s in this fleet: 3059<\/strong>, 3061<\/strong>, 3063<\/strong>, 3064<\/strong>, 3065<\/strong>, 3066<\/strong>, 3067<\/strong>, 3068<\/strong>, 3072<\/strong>, 3073<\/strong> and 3074<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the number of LRVs at Rochdale has now been reduced to two with just 3070<\/strong> and 3071<\/strong> remaining for any further tests required. 3068<\/strong>, 3069<\/strong> and 3074<\/strong> are now back at Queens Road Depot.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday 1st December 1013 is seen running with 1012 at Piccadilly Gardens. When this photo was taken the tram had just one more day in service before withdrawal.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

1026 is seen here at Cornbrook running on test on 17th November 2013. (Both photos: Steve Kemp)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Manchester Metrolink T68 fleet is now down to seven examples following the withdrawal of 1013 and 1026 from service. Both vehicles were officially withdrawn from service on Monday 2nd December although 1026 had not operated for a couple of … Continue reading →<\/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\/5866"}],"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=5866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5885,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5866\/revisions\/5885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}