Concrete is bad news for trams

12:19pm Wednesday 11th April 2007

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Work to replace track at one of the busiest points on Croydon's Tramlink network was delayed because workmen had difficulty breaking through reinforced concrete.

The work to replace tracks was delayed by one day and trams were expected to resume a normal service by today.

On Monday trams were driven the wrong way on the Tramlink route under police escort - a move to ensure enough were available for the East Croydon, Beckenham and New Addington section of the network.

Paul Davison, managing director of Tramtrack Croydon Limited, which manages the network, said: "I think this is the first time we've had to run trams the wrong way through town but we had a police escort and we did it when hardly anyone would be on the road.

"We needed to do these works and we picked the Bank Holiday weekend to cause as little disruption as possible. A lot of people go away at that time. The concrete was very strong and it took the workers a lot longer to get the old track out."

Tram user Desmond Fitzgerald said: "The section of track that is being replaced is in a critical point on the system that effectively crippled the flow of trams throughout the Easter weekend.

"As the trams only run in a clockwise route, the journeys for passengers had to be cut short at respectively East Croydon in the north and Reeves Corner in the south with West Croydon, George Street, Church Street and Centrale completely cut off save for an irregular shuttle bus."

The trams moved during the night were stored in a tunnel close to the Sandilands tram stop.

A shuttle bus took passengers through the section of route under repair and normal service was expected to resume today.