Home Trams

Home Trams is a City Transport run tram operator in Home, running three local tram routes.

It was announced on September 26th 2015 that the Home Trams operation (then operated by National Express) was to be merged with the then Abellio-run Home Rail operation.

The fleet is maintained alongside the heavy rail fleet at the Turton rail depot.

History
Home Trams began operation in 2009 with a fleet of 10 Bombardier Flexity trams, running the Line 1 tram route, which was later branded the green route.

In 2012, a further 10 trams were delivered to start operations on Line 2 and Line 3, which later became the purple and blue routes respectively.

The system was closed for two weeks over the Easter period in 2014 to allow for engineering works at various points across the network.

Future
Following talks with both operators and Transport for Home, it was announced on September 26th 2015 that the Home Trams operation (then operated by National Express) was to be merged with the then Abellio-run Home Rail operation, with the local heavy rail routes becoming part of the tramway. The expected transfer date for this is late 2016.

Services
The current services are split into three different routes.

Home Centre line
Services on this line run every 10 minutes on two core routes, between Lake Home and East Wall, and between Home Interchange and Main Gate. Some additional services run during peak times and on weekends between Home Interchange and Home Centre.

Palm Coast line
Services on this line run every 10 minutes on two core routes, between Home Interchange and Lake Home, and between Home Interchange and Freshwater Beach. Additional services run every 20 minutes between Lake Home and Freshwater Beach.

Museum line
Services on this line run every 10 minutes over two core routes. Trams run between Waterfall and Home Port via Home Interchange, and between Palm Beach and East Wall, via a reversal at Home Interchange.

Fleet
Home Trams currently operate a fleet of 70 trams. In September 2017, City Transport announced that the entire fleet would be replaced with a new build fleet of trams, expected to start operation in late 2017. The first of these trams arrived shortly after the announcement was made, having been kept under wraps for a number of years previous. In 2018, a follow on order for a further fourty S70s was placed, for delivery from 2019.