Nottingham refinancing completed

The Tramlink Nottingham consortium, that has a 30-year concession to operate the 32km tramway system in the British city of Nottingham from 17 December 2011, has completed a financial restructuring that will enable it to fulfil its obligations for the rest of the concession period. 

 

Losses reached £22.1M in 2020 and with passenger loadings still around 80% of pre-pandemic levels, plus the effects of inflation on electricity prices, renegotiation of loan terms from lenders was necessary to avoid the company (Tramlink Nottingham Ltd ) continuing to breach its banking covenants. 

 

The new deal includes investment in new technology to reduce costs and the recruitment of more revenue protection staff. In addition, the ticketing system will be updated. 

 

Tim Hesketh, CEO of Tramlink Nottingham, said 'Nottingham’s trams are an integral part of the city’s life, helping to connect thousands of people each day who rely on the network to travel to work, to their place of study, or for days out with family and friends. This new financial restructuring has been an ongoing project we’ve been working on for two years following the challenges we faced during the pandemic. There will be no changes to our customers in terms of how they use the trams as a result, and they can still expect the same great service from us. However, it gives us a secure financial position which will ensure we can keep on providing the people of Nottingham with reliable, convenient and sustainable travel for many years to come, whilst also allowing us to make key improvements across the whole network’. 

 

Nottingham’s modern era tramway opened on 9 March 2004 with a 9.7km line costing £200M and Phase 2 opened in summer 2015. 

 

Services are provided by 15 Bombardier Incentro and 22 Alstom Citadis 302 trams, carrying 14.4M passengers in 2022/23 compared with 18.8M in 2019. 

 

The consortium comprises Meridiam (30%), OFI InfraVia (20%), Alstom Transport (12.,5%), Keels (12.5%), Vinci Investments (12.5%) and Wellglade Group (12.5%). operations are sub-contracted to Nottingham Trams Ltd, which is 80% owned by Keels and 20% by Wellgalde. Maintenance is sub-contracted to Alstom Transport.