City officials have been presented the keys to Nottingham’s first Citadis tram during a handover ceremony at NET’s Wilkinson Street depot.
At the unveiling ceremony, the chief executive of Tramlink, the system’s operator, said that 100 new maintenance and operations jobs will be created by the new fleet.
The tram arrived in the UK on September 10 after being shipped over to the East Midlands from Alstom’s factory in Barcelona.
Alstom will now deliver the remaining 21 vehicles at a rate of two trams a month.
The new fleet is part of the NET Phase Two project which is extending the city’s light rail network to the south and south west, connecting Clifton and Beeston to the existing network.
Nottingham’s new trams will become the first Citadis model vehicles in the UK and will more than double the current fleet of 15 trams.
Many of the systems within the new Alstom trams have been designed to resemble those in the existing Adtranz vehicles, with particular attention paid to retaining some conformity with the original safety systems and driver controls.
Tramlink chief executive Phillip Hewitt said a lot of time had been spent designing the tram’s nose and interior to ensure that, whilst looking modern, the new trams resembled the look and feel of their predecessors.
Hewitt said: “It’s always a tricky balance. You want the new tram to be new and special.”
An overhaul programme is already underway to upgrade the current fleet.
As well as building the new light rail vehicles, Alstom is working alongside Taylor Woodrow to deliver the 17.5 km extension, which has included building a new tram bridge over Nottingham station.
Hewitt said that utility diversion works were now 75 per cent complete.
Construction work is expected to finish in May 2014. At which point a lengthy testing and commissioning phase is due to get underway.
Still no space for a bicycle though, even on off-peak trams