In this week’s news from the light rail sector – Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Blackpool and Nottingham, an update on services from West Midlands Metro, raising a glass to Edinburgh Trams on its birthday and a track dualling scheme on the Tyne and Wear Metro.
As we approach the extended spring bank holiday weekend, all at UKTram would like to extend their best wishes to Her Majesty the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee.
To all our members and stakeholders, we hope you enjoy this historic occasion whether you are at home, on holiday or working to keep key cities moving during the celebrations!
In this shorter working week, news from across the light rail sector includes:
West Midlands Metro
The operator has confirmed services will resume in the week beginning Sunday June 5, with trams running between Wolverhampton St George’s and Birmingham Bull Street.
This return to service has been enabled by the replacement of tram body panels progressing to schedule and the operator is working with CAF to accelerate repairs and get more trams back out on our network as quickly and safely as possible.
It is currently recruiting more engineers to carry out the specialist repair work as well as moving trams off-site to a third-party facility – with the first of these having left the Wednesbury depot last week. The statement from West Midlands Metro can be read in full here.
NET
Nottingham’s tram network has announced a special ticket that will be available to families for the Queens Platinum Jubilee.
It aims to encourage public transport use over the extended bank holiday weekend and the special ticket will allow a family of five to travel around the city for as little as £8.
With a range of great things happening around Nottingham over the special weekend, NET will join in with celebrations by putting the Jubilee logo on the front of every tram, and has also outlined the best tram stops for residents and visitors to use to access key events. You can read the full story here.
Edinburgh Trams
Edinburgh’s award-winning tram network celebrated its eighth birthday this week and to toast the anniversary, customers were given the chance to enjoy a very special tipple!
In partnership with Johnnie Walker Princes Street, Edinburgh Trams gave away two Journey of Flavour tour tickets to the lucky winner of its special birthday competition.
To enter a free draw for the prize of a visit to one of the city’s latest and most popular tourist attractions, all they needed to do was post a birthday message on Facebook and you can read more here.
Blackpool Transport
Trams will run to their normal timetable throughout most of the extended Bank Holiday. However, on Thursday, June 2, a Jubilee tram parade will be taking place along the promenade which will see some changes to services on the day.
At times, trams will run between North Pier and Fleetwood only. The last tram from Starr Gate to Fleetwood will leave Starr Gate at 14:15. There will then be a pause in service and the next tram will run to Fleetwood from Starr Gate at 15:00.
The last tram from Fleetwood running all the way through to Starr Gate will run at 13:35. The next tram scheduled to run from Fleetwood to Starr Gate is at 15:01 at further information can be found here.
Tyne & Wear Metro
A £100m track dualling scheme that will increase service frequency, reduce journey times, and improve reliability on the Tyne and Wear Metro is starting to ramp up ahead of a planned major line closure later this year.
The Metro Flow project will see an existing freight line upgraded and electrified in South Tyneside, making it capable of carrying Metro services, boosting the capacity for an extra 24,000 customer journeys every day.
Works have started on the installation of the new overhead line to run on the new Metro lines when they are completed and you can read the full story, and find details of temporary line closures, here.
To be included in the next round-up, or the Members News section of the UKTram website, send your press releases to info@uktram.org.