New Addington tram cancellations take place for another week – Inside Croydon

Croydon’s part-time mayor calls for ULEZ revenue to be used to improve public transport

I’m not going anywhere: there were disruptions to Croydon’s tram network for 10 out of 20 weeks in 2024

New Addington continues to be hit by Transport for London’s tram rolling stock crisis.

There was currently no service on all or part of the tram network for 10 weeks out of 20 in 2024, with the New Addington and Elmers End branch affected by most planned “essential” engineering works or emergency withdrawals of the service. .

Inside Croydon reported last week that only eight trams in its fleet of 34 were still able to operate due to what TfL said was wheel damage caused by debris on the tracks. That was before the transport authority issued a belated notice that the entire network was to close at 7pm every evening from last Thursday until Sunday “to allow repair work to take place as quickly as possible”. .

Then there was the sustained prospect that something closer to a full service would return this morning. But it doesn’t.

• Trams only run from Wimbledon to East Croydon and on to Beckenham Junction. There are no trams serving the branch from Sandilands via Lloyd Park, Gravel Hill and New Addington, nor to Elmers End.
• Trams only run once every 10 minutes – about half the normal service frequency.
• And the network will shut down completely at 8pm tonight.

A statement on the website of the transport service TfL states that the lack of service is “due to a shortage of trams”.

TfL has not issued any service updates to give any indication of when a normal service might resume.

Inside Croydon readers have anecdotally reported how replacement or “enhanced” bus services on routes 54, 64, 130, 289 and 466 “to assist customers who wish to travel” often failed to provide adequate coverage for the missing New Addington trams , as the Streetcar Crisis seems to go on and on.

Inside Croydon also reported that industry sources are increasingly suspicious of excuses given for taking trams out of service due to “wheel damage caused by line debris”. There were similar service withdrawals in 2023. But then, only half as many trams were affected by damaged wheels.

The tram fleet has 22 of the original Bombardier stock which have run along the 17-mile network since its opening in 2000, plus 12 Variobahn trams which were purchased between 2012 and 2015.

TfL has started a tender process to find replacements for the Bombardier trams, but due to covid and the transport agency’s financial crisis, it is at least a year or two behind schedule on this multi-million pound purchase .

TfL’s advice is for anyone traveling in the area to check before they travel, consider alternative routes and allow more time to complete their journey.

Croydon Mayor Jason Perry, after spending the last year providing a platform for vandals to cause hundreds of thousands of pounds of criminal damage to TfL property and for Susan Hall supporters to racially abuse the London Mayor, has finally spoken out about late trams. Friday.

Part time: after two years in office, mayor Jason Perry found himself with problems with the trams

Streetcars were not mentioned in the piss-poor Perry’s manifesto when he sought election in 2022.

For his entire two-year term, part-time Perry has previously been publicly silent on this key piece of Croydon’s transport infrastructure. But on Friday, perhaps to try to prove he is doing something for his £82,000 salary, Perry issued a statement saying he had written a letter to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Car-loving Perry was never seen using a Croydon tram during his time in office. On Friday, after nine weeks of tram problems, Perry said the disruption to the tram network had “caused significant disruption to the people of Croydon”.

“This is fundamentally the result of a lack of investment in streetcar rolling stock over many years,” noted Perry.

Perry claimed that he has “addressed this several times in the past,” though this is the first time he has mentioned it publicly.

“I call on Mayor Khan to provide a clear timetable for restoring full and reliable streetcar service across the network,” said Mayor Perry, who has never been able to provide a clear timetable for restoring bus shelters that have been removed from network. neighborhood streets three years ago.

Perry wants the money raised from the ULEZ expansion, which he opposed, to be used for capital investment in the tram network – which was always kind of the idea when Tory Transport Minister Grant Shapps ordered Mayor Khan to expand ultra low emission zone. .

“We have also called for an urgent meeting to discuss a long-term solution for the tram network and what TfL’s plans are for future funding.” Something that, for someone who was elected in 2022, you’d hope Perry would have ended up doing by now…

From May 2024: Two-thirds of the tram fleet is out of service due to wheel failure
From June 2023: 20% of Croydon’s tram fleet has suffered wheel damage

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