There’s half-term coming up, so get ready for the annual spring shutdown of (parts of) the Croydon Tram network. The shutdown will cut off West Croydon and East Croydon mainline stations from most of the south London transit network.
Rare sighting: from Saturday, there won’t be any trams rattling along George Street for most of the rest of this month
“Essential works” are being cited (they are always “essential”), but this disruption to the town centre tram tracks will take two weeks, rather than the usual week to 10 days.
Transport fro London bosses clearly don’t think that parents and grandparents might want to travel by tram with their kids or grand-kids during the half-term break, because from this Saturday, February 10, until Friday February 23, there will be no service between Reeves Corner and Sandilands via Church Street and West Croydon.
Even the formal TfL announcement of the closure was running late, with notices only going up at tram stops and in the carriages this week.
For the period February 10 to 23, trams will run between the following stops:
- Wimbledon and Reeves Corner
- Sandilands and New Addington
- Sandilands and Beckenham Junction
- Sandilands and Elmers End (except Sundays, Monday to Friday before 06.30am and after 7.30pm, and Saturdays before 8.30am and after 7pm)
“Tram replacement buses will run between Reeves Corner and Sandilands,” TfL says.
“Please check before you travel, leave more time for your journey and where possible consider using alternative rail services, local buses, walking or cycling.” Consider? Passengers have no alternative but alternative services, thanks to this latest closure.
TfL’s Journey Planner and TfL Go app are suggested to help plan tram-less journeys.
“We are sorry for the disruption this may cause,” said TfL’s Navid Golshan.
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The issue here is not that Trams will not be opeating, but the timing and communication, which is not great.
From a bright side – I know for certain is that we have become reliant on the tram for through running and joining the Borough to other links. That says it is a successful transport system.
The disruption is a royal pain in the posterior and the communication can be improved. But we know that the Tram will be improved now and roughly when it will be completed. We also know that new trams are on their way.
I searched for “tram closures” on Inside Croydon, but could only find this article about LAST year’s Feb half-term closures (2024)….perhaps Steven D had got bored with endlessly reporting on tram network closures?
This year, it only been one week (15-23 Feb), and trams have been running btw East Croydon and Beckenham Junction, East Croydon and New Addington, and Reeves Corner to Wimbledon, so no trams on the central Croydon loop or on the one-stop btw Arena and Elmers End. If they can’t make the central Croydon loop have a service interval of more than one year, perhaps they need to ban road vehicles (HGVs, buses, etc.) from the roads where the tram goes? Maybe it will be some consolation to the inconvenienced tram passengers that the full tram network should reopen tomorrow (Monday 24 Feb, for the return to school, and the weather is wet and windy tonight (Sunday 23 Feb 2025) for the frantic last push to get everything ready for Monday morning !?!
You need to pay closer attention, Jim:
https://insidecroydon.com/2025/01/29/town-centre-tram-loop-set-for-track-replacement-in-february/