Nottingham Express Transit - Reliability & Renewals (2023-2024)

[MCR247]

It’s interesting that the Weekday Cross works seem to be only be on on the station bound track when there are ESRs in both directions around there

 

[edwin_m]

It’s interesting that the Weekday Cross works seem to be only be on on the station bound track when there are ESRs in both directions around there

The wear on the northbound track may be less severe because trams will more often be going slowly, due to travelling uphill and sometimes having to stop before joining the highway.

 

[MCR247]

The wear on the northbound track may be less severe because trams will more often be going slowly, due to travelling uphill and sometimes having to stop before joining the highway.

True, but I assume the ESR means something will need to be done on that line eventually. I guess doing one side at a time might mean through access is able to be maintained

 

[edwin_m]

True, but I assume the ESR means something will need to be done on that line eventually. I guess doing one side at a time might mean through access is able to be maintained

YEs, I think we can expect a closure for the other track fairly soon. To do that one they would probably need to close the road completely, as the curve in question goes across both lanes, unless they can do half at a time which might make it difficult to get a good alignment on the curve. Buses would take the usual diversion via Bellar Gate but access to the car park will need a different diversion. Possibly they don't want to do that during the pre-Xmas shopping period.

 

[Jozhua]

Full communications failure on the trams again, as of around ~10:30 this evening.

This will be the radio system used to communicate between the control room and drivers cab, I assume. Sounds like a central failure of the equipment in the depot itself!

Surprised they don't have redundant transmitters, although if it's a software issue, then that might explain things.

 

[MCR247]

Full communications failure on the trams again, as of around ~10:30 this evening.

This will be the radio system used to communicate between the control room and drivers cab, I assume. Sounds like a central failure of the equipment in the depot itself!

Surprised they don't have redundant transmitters, although if it's a software issue, then that might explain things.

Yes. It seemed to start around an hour before as I was out and noticed the platform screens were blank but trams were still running at that point

 

[Robbouk]

Today trams can't run from Clifton to Nottingham station because of flooding at Wilford Road. While this is outside of their control, the PIS at the stops doesn't reflect this and still shows services as running to the Station. I assume these can't easily be updated to reflect disruption.

On another note, I notice last night they had ticket acceptance on NCT but not TrentBarton. I wonder why they seem to have issues getting acceptance on TrentBarton when they are essentially a part of the same consortium. Perhaps is a competition rule or something.

 

[MCR247]

Today trams can't run from Clifton to Nottingham station because of flooding at Wilford Road. While this is outside of their control, the PIS at the stops doesn't reflect this and still shows services as running to the Station. I assume these can't easily be updated to reflect disruption.

On another note, I notice last night they had ticket acceptance on NCT but not TrentBarton. I wonder why they seem to have issues getting acceptance on TrentBarton when they are essentially a part of the same consortium. Perhaps is a competition rule or something.

Yes I have noticed that whenever disruption results in services being turned back short, the PIS will always show tram departures with the normal destination listed rather than where they'll actually be turning round. There is usually a scrolling message saying 'no service between x and y' but the fact it conflicts with the next tram countdowns might cause confusion. But then I guess one positive is that when the disruption ends and trams go back to their scheduled full route, at least the PIS is already correct

 

[DDB]

Today trams can't run from Clifton to Nottingham station because of flooding at Wilford Road. While this is outside of their control, the PIS at the stops doesn't reflect this and still shows services as running to the Station. I assume these can't easily be updated to reflect disruption.

On another note, I notice last night they had ticket acceptance on NCT but not TrentBarton. I wonder why they seem to have issues getting acceptance on TrentBarton when they are essentially a part of the same consortium. Perhaps is a competition rule or something.

I think it is more a route thing depending which bit is out, NCT run more suitable services.

 

[duffield]

Service had been restored through to Clifton South when I travelled this afternoon. The platform PIS was correct but the tram front and internal displays were still showing Wilford Lane, it was pretty clear this was causing some confusion.

 

[DDB]

Service had been restored through to Clifton South when I travelled this afternoon. The platform PIS was correct but the tram front and internal displays were still showing Wilford Lane, it was pretty clear this was causing some confusion.

Are you sure? It was Wilford Lane only when I travelled at about 6pm. The tram was correct (Wilford Lane) and the platform displays were wrong.

 

[Jozhua]

Yesterday when I took a walk to see the river in all it's glory, I got caught out by flooding at Wilford Lane:

It was coming out a manhole, so was almost certainly black water - mostly smelled soapy, so guessing it was mostly bath, shower, dish and washing machine water, but obviously still contains nasty stuff in it!

I tried to get through, but was struggling, when a friendly driver gave me a lift past.

Can't be sure if it's the exact cause of the tram disruption, but wouldn't be surprised.

 

[DDB]

Yesterday when I took a walk to see the river in all it's glory, I got caught out by flooding at Wilford Lane:
View attachment 145243
It was coming out a manhole, so was almost certainly black water - mostly smelled soapy, so guessing it was mostly bath, shower, dish and washing machine water, but obviously still contains nasty stuff in it!

I tried to get through, but was struggling, when a friendly driver gave me a lift past.

Can't be sure if it's the exact cause of the tram disruption, but wouldn't be surprised.

Buses now also diverting round it. So one flood has blocked both public transport methods and pedestrians.

 

[duffield]

Are you sure? It was Wilford Lane only when I travelled at about 6pm. The tram was correct (Wilford Lane) and the platform displays were wrong.

Hmm. I got off at Wilford Lane anyhow, as intended, so now I realise I'm not actually sure; I am sure there was no announcement about it terminating, and the tram proceeded towards Clifton - but I guess it could have just gone down to the next crossover and back. But I thought there were still a few people on it. I should have noticed if they were turfed off since I stayed on the central island platform until the tram left.

But I maybe wasn't paying enough attention to the tram, as I was busy staring at the flooded rugby pitch and Iremonger's Pond nature reserve.

 

[DDB]

Hmm. I got off at Wilford Lane anyhow, as intended, so now I realise I'm not actually sure; I am sure there was no announcement about it terminating, and the tram proceeded towards Clifton - but I guess it could have just gone down to the next crossover and back. But I thought there were still a few people on it. I should have noticed if they were turfed off since I stayed on the central island platform until the tram left.

But I maybe wasn't paying enough attention to the tram, as I was busy staring at the flooded rugby pitch and Iremonger's Pond nature reserve.

From your description you were actually at Wilford Village. They were terminating at Wilford Lane which is the next stop.

 

[edwin_m]

From your description you were actually at Wilford Village. They were terminating at Wilford Lane which is the next stop.

The crossover is midway between the two stations so it would be more convenient operationally to terminate at Wilford Village, but Wilford Lane gives the chance of onward bus connections - although from posts above I'd question whether any were still running.

 

[duffield]

From your description you were actually at Wilford Village. They were terminating at Wilford Lane which is the next stop.

That explains it! I've travelled this line a few times but somehow overlooked there being two Wilford stops and conflated them. So yes, I got off at Wilford Village, not Lane, and so the tram would have carried on to the next stop.

Apologies for the confusion. So as you said, it was the platform PIS that was wrong, which is somewhat poor since the control room should surely have updated it as a high priority.

 

[MCR247]

Apologies for the confusion. So as you said, it was the platform PIS that was wrong, which is somewhat poor since the control room should surely have updated it as a high priority.

I don’t think they are able to. The platform PIS always shows the originally scheduled destination during disruption, with there just being a scrolling message on the bottom line explaining where the trams are terminating short/not serving. I assume the system can only display the destinations originally loaded into the schedule for the day.

During engineering works the schedules are altered so the platform PIS will show the altered destination (such as for the past few days), but if there is then disruption during that the destinations won’t change to reflect that.

Whereas on the trams themselves the drivers will always update the PIS system of course.

 

[tram21]

I don’t think they are able to. The platform PIS always shows the originally scheduled destination during disruption, with there just being a scrolling message on the bottom line explaining where the trams are terminating short/not serving. I assume the system can only display the destinations originally loaded into the schedule for the day.

During engineering works the schedules are altered so the platform PIS will show the altered destination (such as for the past few days), but if there is then disruption during that the destinations won’t change to reflect that.

Whereas on the trams themselves the drivers will always update the PIS system of course.

Yes, the platform PIS shows the timetabled destination from the service number shown on the working timetable.

It's only when new service numbers are created that this is reflected on the screens.

Attached is another photo of the earlier problem:

 

[Jozhua]

Just below The Forest tram stop, track gets flooded all the time. Although this looks deep enough to risk water coming in through the doors!

 

[tram21]

Not sure what the works at Nottingham Station were supposed to help with, as there are TSRs still in place in both directions!

 

[MCR247]

Not sure what the works at Nottingham Station were supposed to help with, as there are TSRs still in place in both directions!

Since coming up with a new tag line for engineering works (We are improving your tram network) we’ve had 3 sets of works, all which were to fix issues rather than actual ‘improvements.’ Adding insult to injury, is the fact that, as said above, it seems this set of works hasn’t even fixed anything! (at least from a passengers point of view)

 

[Jozhua]

Looks like there was a failed tram yesterday (6th December) between Meadows Way West and University Boulevard blocking service.

Looks like there was some other technical failure causing similar issues between Wilkinson St and David Lane today (7th December)

 

[tram21]

Looks like there was a failed tram yesterday (6th December) between Meadows Way West and University Boulevard blocking service.

Looks like there was some other technical failure causing similar issues between Wilkinson St and David Lane today (7th December)

Trams are failing left, right and centre with reliability being incredibly low at the moment. Good to see the new Zero-Tolerance of fare evasion campaign though, time will tell if it will work (I've taken 14 journeys this week and not been checked)

 

[Jozhua]

Trams are failing left, right and centre with reliability being incredibly low at the moment. Good to see the new Zero-Tolerance of fare evasion campaign though, time will tell if it will work (I've taken 14 journeys this week and not been checked)

I'm not entirely convinced it will work, although my ticket is checked once every couple of journeys I find (sometimes multiple times on the same one).

People can still just walk away from the inspectors and avoid giving details, seemingly without consequences though.

Trams are struggling, but given that a lot of weekday and even weekend services are pretty full, not sure if there is much scope to reduce service slightly so they can do more works on the trams.

It may also be a situation that maintenance crews aren't aware of issues before the trams fully breakdown, especially if the issue is electrical in nature. A lot of what I've seen comes down to erroneous warnings and the like, which nevertheless still force the tram to go out of service

 

[tram21]

People can still just walk away from the inspectors and avoid giving details, seemingly without consequences though.

They say that this is being tackled using the CCTV and they are able to find people who have done this, but I'm not sure how in the majority of cases how they will be able to do this (and prove it was definitely them!)

 

[ChrisC]

Good to see the new Zero-Tolerance of fare evasion campaign though, time will tell if it will work (I've taken 14 journeys this week and not been checked)

Hopefully this might deter the gangs of teenagers who jump on and off the trams for just short journeys of one or two stops. It needs to be a very discreet plain clothes operation to catch some of those I have seen, especially in the Bulwell area. I get the feeling they work together sending messages by text if ticket inspectors are about. They seem to be very good at knowing exactly when to quickly get off before ticket inspectors board or arrive at tram stops.

 

[Jozhua]

They say that this is being tackled using the CCTV and they are able to find people who have done this, but I'm not sure how in the majority of cases how they will be able to do this (and prove it was definitely them!)

Yeah, given my experience of the police processing CCTV evidence, it's not the best.

I genuinely think you could probably get away without ever paying a fine simply ignoring/walking away from them.

 

[MCR247]

I genuinely think you could probably get away without ever paying a fine simply ignoring/walking away from them.

I get the impression a lot of do exactly that

 

[Robbouk]

In an article on Nottinghamshire Live they said they have 40 ticket agents. Isn't that enough for one on each tram, even if working in pairs they could cover the majority and bring back onboard sales.