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Favourite UK Tram System

What is Your Favorite UK Tram System

  • Nottingham Express Transit

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • Midland Metro

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • Sheffield Supertram

    Votes: 6 14.0%
  • Manchester Metrolink

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • Docklands Light Railway

    Votes: 11 25.6%
  • Croydon Tramlink

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • Blackpool

    Votes: 4 9.3%

  • Total voters
    43
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Mushroom

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What is your favourite UK tram system?
Personally its the Supertram even tho I use the Metrolink a lot.

Mark (aka MancunianTrammer)
 
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Lewisham2221

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My choice is Metrolink.

NET is a very close second, very very close in fact. There's just something about Metrolink that I like more than NET, but I can't put my finger on it.

As for the others, I havn't experienced Tramlink or Supertram so I can't really comment on them. And the DLR and Blackpool both fall into their own, unique categories really. Which just leaves Midland Metro, which doesn't really do a lot. Maybe when(if?) it gets extended, has some more on street running and actually does something truely usefull I might grow to like it more. But for now, I'd probably vote it into last place.
 

Guinness

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Manchester Metrolink was my choice purely for the fact it was the original and the first 2nd generation tram system in the UK. Also tis my local. ;)

Followed by NET (Was very impressed when I was riding it) then Croydon with Midland Metro last because its really boring..
 

Mushroom

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Chaz said:
Manchester Metrolink was my choice purely for the fact it was the original and the first 2nd generation tram system in the UK. Also tis my local. ;)

I used to be in the same boat, but after riding Sheffield a number of times is just moved ahead of my local Metrolink.
 

tramboy

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I'm not entirely sure how we call the DLR a UK Tram system, as it is entirely segregated light rail.

Anyway, my vote went for Nottingham...as someone from the city, but Sheffield is definitely up there in second...mainly for the impressive ride of the largest trams in the country.

Midland Metro is, currently, the worst system in the country for being modern and yet useless...rubbish trams (Firema=useless) and one line that avoids many urban areas. Croydon is really successful and deserves extending, Manchester needs extending, but it could do with new trams and track upgrades desperately, and finally Blackpool...which is in a league of its own.

Cheers

Dave
 

Tom B

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Sheffield by far! Blackpool and DLR should be considered seperately though.
 

Jordy

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Sheffield for me too, its so extensive and interesting. Nottingham would win for the actual trams for me though!

Jordy
 

tramboy

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You have to remember though, that Sheffield was built at a time when light rail was "in". Nowadays the government are so petrified about spending money on anything but the roads that light rail stands no chance, unless, of course, it's in London. Trust our luck to get a government that doesn't believe in spending lots of money for a long term investment and benefits.

It's true Nottingham's trams are more interesting than Sheffield's...why have 3 segments when you can have 5 going round the tightest corner on a UK light rail system, but the Duewag trams in Sheffield are the largest trams in the country, and have stood up to a lot (being the first partially low floor LRVs in the UK), so deserve some credit!

Regards

Dave
 

Angus

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The Dore Triangle
Well I think that Sheffield trams are actually very little use at all - what the hell is the point of having a tram system if it doesn't go anywhere near where most people live? The system is only build to cater for people who live out Hillsborough or Crystal Peaks way, and want to go to Meadowhall via the town centre (none of which are worth the effort to visit anyway even if the tram came within 10 miles of me).
 

Nitro

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DLR for me for the pure reason that its (mainly) driverless and you can look from the drivers place and sometimes if your lucky when the 'driver' comes he doesnt make you move so you can see al the buttons! :p
 

tramboy

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Sheffield's trams are actually a lot of use, now that they are run commercially by Stagecoach they have been making money for the past 5 years. The system was originally designed and built to serve the high rise tower blocks in Park Grange, as well as those in Hillsborough. However, over time these have been demolished (tram services were halted when the last block at Park Grange was blown up), and the system has needed to refocus. It doesn't just take people to Meadowhall...it takes people from Meadowhall to the suburbs along that line, the city centre, provides a valuable link from teh University to the train station, and also a valuable park and ride site on the outskirts of the city for the city centre.

In fact, Sheffield is probably the least "pointless" system of them all, if you are going along those lines...Nottingham people said was pointless because it served a train route (bear with me, I know it's not a pointless line at all, because I live there...but you can see why it might be thought of as pointless), Croydon seems pointless as it has no park and ride facilities to take traffic off the roads (yet is successful in transporting people around the suburbs (i've visited). At least Sheffield, in its inception, had a clearly defined "point" of getting people into the city from the suburbs as well as reducing local pollution (Sheffield after bus deregulation was chaos).

Meadowhall is quite nice to visit...or visit MG Sharps in Attercliffe for railway modelling supplies (Attercliffe tram stop), so maybe it is worth the effort.

Regards

Dave
 

ChrisCooper

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My favorite is definitly Sheffield. It was the first I did, which carries some weighting, and it's the only decent size system I've covered the whole of (I don't take into account one line or one line and a little branch systems in that). The trams are nice aswell, and it's go some great scenary. Manchester is second, the trams arn't as impressive as Sheffield, or Nottingham for that matter, and it's not as scenic, but it does have a nice mixture of street running, reserved sections and ex-BR sections. The 2 types of tram add to the interest, especially since whilst near identical, they are traction equipent wise a generation apart (DC motors on the 1000 series, AC motors on the 2000 series). As for Nottingham, the trams are impressive to look at, but I don't like travelling on the system at all. Probably doesn't help that the first time I went on a combination of the stuffiness, smell from the coatings on everything (it was only a few weeks after it opened) and the IMHO fairly poor ride (although none of the tram systems score well in that department) made me feel quite ill by the time I got off. I wonder if those incredibly loud and annoying annocments didn't help either.
 

tramboy

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I suggest you try Nottingham again! It did have teething problems when it first began service, but now the trams have bedded in, the system is up there with the rest for being a light rail system that has taken off and proven it's worth. The ride has got better with track grinding, although one section still remains a problem, but unfortunately Wendy remains (the only person in Nottinghamshire to say Hucknall rather than 'ucknall!).

Ride quality on UK trams has been getting better...Croydon is very smooth, as is Nottingham these days, and Sheffield is smooth when they aren't trying to run the vehicles fast (the end bogies do have a tendency to hunt)!

All I can say is, try them again, and for what they are (which is the first modern light rail in the UK) they are definitely good. However, we still don't stand up to the ride I've had in Munich, Prague or Rome for example...mainly because those systems have had chance to develop for a long time, and all of ours are "new"

Cheers

Dave
 

tramboy

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Fine, Meadowhall is quite nice to visit if you feel the need to visit an out of town shopping centre every now and then and shove your way through crowds of people, avoiding the "youths" who just hang around at certain points of it.

That do?

Cheers

Dave
 

Nick W

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I like DLR best. No guided trolley bus could ever even come close to what it does.
 

tramboy

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That's the problem with this thread title...as I wouldn't count the DLR as a "tram system", more a "light rail" system...which maybe the thread title should be changed to say.

It's true, the DLR couldn't be done by any sort of tramway, or guided bus, but that's because it runs on a fixed alignment, segregated, and mainly on viaduct through the middle of the areas...the right choice for the right area. The same applies for modern tramways, if you make the right decision on where your tramline goes, what sort of vehicles you need, how frequently they shoudl run etc then of course the system will be a success.

We're learning...just not fast enough

Regards

Dave
 

Tom B

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Medowhell - yuck. Hate the place, full of South Yorkshire's finest.
 

Mushroom

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danannis said:
No officially Tyne and Wear Metro is not a Tram link but I still think it should be added!!! Because it is a form of tram travel!:confused:

Thats what I thought when i created the poll. I actualy had m first experience of the Tyne and Wear Metro last Saturday. I really liked it. I love the pasenger seat at the front next to the cab.
 

tramboy

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The T+W Metro is not in any sense of the word "tram" a form of tram travel...it's "light rail". That's the problem we have in this country...the non-distinguishment (a new word!) of tram to light rail to metro (medium rail if you will).

"Trams" will be able to share a road with other vehicles...ie permitted to run onstreet. Light rail/Metro/Medium and Heavy Rail isn't.

Regards

Dave
 

Jordy

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tramboy said:
The T+W Metro is not in any sense of the word "tram" a form of tram travel...it's "light rail". That's the problem we have in this country...the non-distinguishment (a new word!) of tram to light rail to metro (medium rail if you will).

"Trams" will be able to share a road with other vehicles...ie permitted to run onstreet. Light rail/Metro/Medium and Heavy Rail isn't.

But the same could be said for the DLR, and its included in this poll!

Jordy
 

asopu10

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I'm voteing for Nottinghams since its my local one that serves me well and is a good service, always clean, nice shelters and information screens, nice staff, can't go wrong.
 
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