{"id":63677,"date":"2026-07-03T22:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T21:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=63677"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:47:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:47:41","slug":"west-midlands-metro-honour-geoffrey-claydon-with-tram-naming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=63677","title":{"rendered":"West Midlands Metro honour Geoffrey Claydon with tram naming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The legacy of Geoffrey Claydon, who passed away in 2025, has been recognised by the West Midlands Metro who have named one of their trams after him in a special ceremony held at Edgbaston Village tramstop on 2<sup>nd<\/sup> July 2026.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Birmingham born Geoffrey played a pivotal role in bringing trams back to many UK cities having drafted the visionary Transport and Works Act of 1992. This removed a series of bureaucratic hurdles buried in century-old legislation, making it easier to gain approvals for new routes. He was also an early member of the Tramway Museum Society where he was Secretary for a number of years and also served as President. Geoffrey also served as Chairman, President and Patron of the LRTA.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Parker, Mayor of West Midlands, said: \u201cWithout Geoffrey\u2019s crucial work on the Transport and Works Act, this tram \u2013 or indeed the whole tram network \u2013 may never have existed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis influence goes way beyond legislation. He was a lifelong champion of light rail and tramway heritage. He is a true giant of this industry, and it\u2019s only fitting that one of our trams bears his name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Urbos100 <strong>48<\/strong> was chosen for the naming and after the ceremony at Edgbaston Village the tram took invited guests to Millennium Point before they retired to The Woodman for a reception. The tram now carries the name Geoffrey Claydon CB.<\/p>\n<p>This becomes the seventh West Midlands Metro tram to currently carry a name. Others who have been honoured include Jasper Carrott, Cyrille Regis, Ozzy Osbourne and Steven Knight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The legacy of Geoffrey Claydon, who passed away in 2025, has been recognised by the West Midlands Metro who have named one of their trams after him in a special ceremony held at Edgbaston Village tramstop on 2nd July 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63677"}],"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=63677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63678,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63677\/revisions\/63678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}