{"id":6329,"date":"2014-01-21T20:16:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T20:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=6329"},"modified":"2014-01-21T20:16:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T20:16:21","slug":"another-two-t68s-withdrawn-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=6329","title":{"rendered":"Another two T68s withdrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are now just three Manchester Metrolink T68s available for passenger service following the official withdrawal today of 1017<\/strong> and 1023<\/strong>. This leaves just 1007<\/strong>, 1016<\/strong> and 1022<\/strong> in the serviceable fleet alongside the two remaining T68As \u2013 2001<\/strong> and 2003<\/strong> \u2013 to give a bit of variety to the now ubiquitous M5000 LRVs.<\/p>\n

As reported previously on British Trams Online<\/em> 1017<\/strong> was involved in a collision with a car on the Eccles line on 10th January and at the time we speculated that it may have been withdrawn at that juncture but surprisingly repairs were made although it is not believed to have been used in service since the accident. 1017<\/strong> was discovered in Queens Road yard on 20th January with a dropped pantograph which was found to be down to a failed compressor and so the decision was made to officially withdrawn the LRV. 1017<\/strong> was scheduled for withdrawal in the next few weeks anyway so its end was just slightly accelerated by the dreaded compressor failure (which has been the cause of the end of several T68s recently).<\/p>\n

The second withdrawal is 1023<\/strong> which was last used as part of a double unit with 1022<\/strong> on 20th January. 1023<\/strong> remains serviceable but is currently sat on bogies with tyres which are very close to scrapping size and it was due to be the next to be withdrawn anyway. It is to take on the ice-breaker duties from 1021<\/strong> as the latter vehicle has been suffering from reliability problems recently and the ice-breaker pantograph has now been transferred to 1023<\/strong> so it can take up its new role. 1021<\/strong> is now not considered serviceable although there is a chance it will sacrifice its bogies shortly for use under one of the remaining T68s. 1023<\/strong> has one claim to fame and that is that it is the only one of the 32 T68 and T68 fleets that has never carried a name!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile there has been a little bit of movement with the M5000 fleet in recent weeks with 3059<\/strong> becoming the latest example to enter service, on Friday 17th January, with ATS and VRS equipment fitted. Transport for Greater Manchester have also announced, via a press release, that further M5000s are due to enter service from Monday 27th January including the first of those fitted with eight extra seats and grab handles following \u201cpassenger feedback\u201d. The first of the M5000s to be fitted with these is 3075<\/strong> and this LRV is expected to enter service alongside 3076<\/strong> and 3077<\/strong> and also 3071<\/strong> shortly.<\/p>\n

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1017 approaches Cornbrook on 17th November 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

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1023 at the head of a double unit pulls into Queens Road stop on 21st December 2013. (Both photos: Steve Kemp)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are now just three Manchester Metrolink T68s available for passenger service following the official withdrawal today of 1017 and 1023. This leaves just 1007, 1016 and 1022 in the serviceable fleet alongside the two remaining T68As \u2013 2001 and … 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\/6329"}],"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=6329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6334,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions\/6334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}