Rowe Hankins wins £50k Metrolink contract

RAIL systems specialist Rowe Hankins has won a £50,000 contract to provide new improved speed probes to boost the performance of Manchester’s Metrolink trams.

The Bury-based company, which employs 60 people and has a £5m turnover, conducted research into improving the speed probes after Metrolink saw an increase in unscheduled downtime, which was causing disruption to services and passenger inconvenience.

The original speed probes on the trams, some of which were 17 years old,  gave an irregular speed signals – tolerable with a single sensor failure, but if two or more sensors failed then the trams had to be taken out of service. This happened 13 times in the last year.

Following a successful trial of the speed probes in December and January , Stagecoach Metrolink is to adopt the new system on its fleet of 26 T68 trams.

Clive Pennington, head of engineering at SML, said: “Rowe Hankins were very positive and proactive in working with SML to produce a cost effective answer to the problem. The Rowe Hankins speed probes are more reliable, give a better quality output and are easier and quicker to install than the original equipment.”