Copies of all timetables posted at stops since Tramlink started running will be kept here. Tramlink Timetable information is run jointly by Croydon Tramlink — The Unofficial Website and London Bus Routes. This section is maintained by Robert Munster, who can be emailed direct on robert @ londonbusroutes.net (remove the spaces). Many thanks are due to John Kaye, David Reynolds, Roger Triggs and somebody anonymous at East Croydon who have provided much assistance in the compilation of route working information.

Remember that this is not the official site of Croydon Tramlink and no responsibility can be taken for any inaccuracies. Timetables are subject to change and Trams can easily be late (or early!). Croydon Tramlink normally changes timetables from a Sunday. A detailed history of the timetable is given below.

In addition to the individual line timetables, there is a Loop Working Summary showing all trams between Arena and Wimbledon. This shows how lines 1 and 2 combine in the evenings and on Sundays, and how track space is allocated around the town centre. There is also Route Working Information, showing Tram Running Numbers as displayed in the windscreen. During the period of frequent changes this was compiled mostly by observation, and the early files cannot therefore be guaranteed free of errors.

All pages are available as HTML (for viewing) and as PDF (for printing). PDF versions of pages up to and including 12/08/01 were created by John Hewes. To view PDF files, you will need Acrobat Reader. If you don't have it, you can download free readers for Windows, Mac, or UNIX/Linux operating systems. If you still have difficulty printing, try copying the text from the HTML page into a suitable text editor, being sure to use a smallish monospaced font. On some pages there may be minor corrections only effective on the HTML version.

As originally planned there were to be three basic routes, the 1 from Elmers End via Croydon to Wimbledon, the 2 from Beckenham Junction to central Croydon and the 3 from New Addington to central Croydon. The 2 and 3 would operate right round the town centre one-way-loop, with the 1 only serving one half of the loop in each direction. However, during the evenings and on Sundays Line 2 would run beyond Croydon, parallelling the 1, as far as Beddington Lane stop.

Tramlink was opened in stages during the spring of 2000, as the sections were approved for passenger service. A full report on the opening can be found here. First to open was Line 3, with normal services commencing on Thursday 11 May after opening ceremony/celebrations the day before. Line 2 opened between Beckenham and Croydon on Tuesday 23 May at 1200 after an opening ceremony, and Line 1 on Tuesday 30 May similarly. The opening of Line 1 allowed depot journeys to be run in service on Lines 2 and 3 from the Tuesday evening, and the evening/Sunday extension of Line 2 to Beddington Lane commenced from this day.

The contracted frequencies differentiate between "peak" (Monday to Saturday daytime) and "off-peak" (after about 1900 daily, before 0800 on Saturdays and all day Sundays). Lines 1 and 2 were originally contracted to run every 10 minutes at peak times and every 30 minutes off-peak, but with the line 2 off-peak service extended beyond Croydon to Beddington Lane to provide 4 trams per hour over this section. Meanwhile, the 3 was contracted to run at intervals of 6/7/7 minutes at peak times and every 15 minutes off-peak. The irregular 6/7/7 frequency means that there are exactly 9 trams per hour since 6+7+7+6+7+7+6+7+7=60. To cover this work, Line 1 had a peak requirement for 8 trams on Mondays to Saturdays and an offpeak requirement for 3, the 2 used 5 trams at peaks and 3 offpeak and Line 3 used 8 at peaks and 4 offpeak. In addition, "extras" have been used from time to time when available to help restore the headway after severe disruption. Most timetables have featured a certain amount of interworking between the 1 and 2 in the evenings on Mondays to Saturdays.

Initially, to allow services to "bed down," a more cautious service was run than that contracted, with a 12 minute Monday to Saturday daytime service on routes 1 and 2 instead of the contracted 10 to allow trams more running time, and a 6/7/7/7/7/7/7 minute pattern on the 3. The odd 6 was to allow the 3 timings to mesh in with the 1 and 2, since 6+7+7+7+7+7+7=48 which is also a multiple of 12. Line 3 was altered to the contracted frequency from 12 June; the Sunday times were not altered, hence the Monday start date. On 26 June the contracted running times were adopted on the 1 and 2, but retaining the lower frequencies; as a result, line 1 only used 7 trams during this period. Finally, on 16 July the contracted frequencies were also adopted on the 1 and 2, with minor running time adjustments on this date also. However, before 16 July working timetables were changed on a weekly basis, but the timetables given here are as published.

Experience with the timetable, difficulty keeping to the tight timings and unexpectedly heavy loadings on route 1 in the evenings and on Sundays resulted in a common sense move taking place on 3 December 2000 — in some respects the new timetable exceeded the original contract, in others fell short. Trams thus ran every 11 minutes after about 0900 on Mondays to Saturdays, when it was found that trams were delayed by shoppers, while the Line 2 evening/Sunday extension to Beddington Lane was continued to Wimbledon (this could be done within the existing timings). There were minor adjustments to the Line 3 timetable to avoid clashes with the 1 and 2, meaning that there was no longer a clear pattern during the day.

However, it was decided to restore the full 10 minute service from 12 August 2001. Additionally, the evening and Sunday service was retimed so that trams alternated between trips on Lines 1 and 2, providing all 6 trams out on these routes at these times with even amounts of recovery time, whereas previously those on the (longer) Line 2 had a very tight schedule. Some minor adjustments were made to the running times as well.

A new stop was built in Tamworth Road during 2004/2005, principally to serve the new Centrale shopping development. However, to stop trams at the stop required extra running time, and there was precious little slack in the system. A revised service service structure was planned using an additional tram and revised routeings to alleviate this problem, although in the meantime agreement was eventually reached to open the new stop using the old timetable from 10 December 2005.

The new timetable, which started on 23 July 2006, was also designed to address imbalances in loadings, with very heay peak loadings into Wimbledon and relatively light loadings on the New Addington line. The Croydon - Wimbledon service was switched from Line 1 to Line 3, creating a New Addington - Wimbledon service every 7½ minutes, using 13 trams. The Beckenham Junction and Elmers End branches see all trams using the loop apart from early morning and evening depot journeys, with a shared allocation of 9 trams alternating between the two termini, changing route number on departure from East Croydon stop, at the start of the loop. Other than the increase in "peak" frequency to Wimbledon and the decrease to New Addington, there was no change to frequencies. Note that these timetables meant a total of 22 trams in service, compared with 21 prior to that – maintenance had to be tightened up.

In spring 2008 it was announced that TfL had agreed to purchase TCL from its owning consortium – not to be confused with TOL, which is still owned by First, and is responsible for day-to-day running. Improvements were promised, and sure enough the long overdue increase in the evening and Sunday frequency on lines 1 and 2 from 2 to 4 trams per hour was implemented from Sunday 20 July 2008. The need for this improvement has been obvious almost from the system's opening, but nothing happened, TCL blaming TfL for refusing to pay and TfL blaming the PFI contract for making such changes "difficult!" Needless to say, TCL coming under TfL ownership solved that problem.

A serious accident in Croydon Town Centre, involving a runaway bus, resulted in one tram having to be returned to Austria for major repairs. As a result, it was not possible to provide 22 trams for service, and a temporary timetable was therefore implemented from 10 October 2008, with the "peak" service on lines 1 and 2 reduced to every 12 minutes using 8 trams rather than 9. One side benefit is that it allows a completely regular service on the joint section of lines 1 & 2 for the first time ever. This timetable has worked so well that the reduced frequency was made permanent. The only problem was in the morning peak where there was insufficient capacity, so after the damaged tram was repaired it was put back into the morning peak service on the 1/2 from 14 December 2009, restoring the 10 minute frequency until approximately 0930.

Major track works took place during the summer holidays between 23 July and 31 August 2009 inclusive. A normal service operated on 1-2 August due to the Croydon Festival and Lloyd Park Mela. The work was in three phases: Phase 1 (drainage work at Cherry Orchard Road) until 31 July (actually finished early on 30 July), Phase 2 (Track work at George Street/Wellesley Road) between 3 and 10 August inclusive, and Phase 3 (Track work at East Croydon Station) from 11 August.

Phase 1 and phase 3 saw trams suspended between East Croydon and Sandilands only, with a replacement bus service between. Phase 3 used a temporary stop by the George Street crossover, near Dingwall Road, instead of the normal platforms at East Croydon. Phase 2 saw the blockade extended to include the entire town centre loop. In all phases, line 1 was suspended during the evenings and on Sundays, to allow trams to be stabled at Elmers End – other trams stabled in the Sandilands tunnel after end of service. Line 2 was increased to every 10 minutes at these times to compensate. Line 3 ran in two sections, with the Wimbledon service reduced to every 10 minutes as there were not enough trams for the full normal frequency. The total tram requirement was reduced by one more to 20, with just 6 needed on the west side (with access to the depot) and 14 east of the blockade in phases 1 and 3, and 5 and 15, respectively, in phase 2.

In the event phase 3 over-ran, but a desire to avoid the bus service when schools returned lead to work being concentrated on the east side of East Croydon so that services could be restored that far, with just the west end of the stop still being worked on from 1 to 6 September inclusive. This lead to a hybrid operation with trams suspended only between East Croydon and Dingwall Road. Owing to limited turnback facilities at East Croydon, line 1 was reduced to a 1-tram shuttle between Elmers End and Blackhorse Lane, reversing at Addiscombe, with lines 2 and 3 both running every 10 minutes (3 15 evenings as normal). This required 11 trams in total – some temporary track allowed some trams to be swapped over and the number on the east side reduced. On 6 September itself the normal phase 3 timetable ran again, with trams cut back to Sandilands to allow for testing at East Croydon, although trams did run through to East Croydon when circumstances permitted.

The Phase 2 timetable ran again from Saturday 21 August to Monday 30 August 2010 inclusive for further track works.

No further plans are known for further changes to the timetable. There is little scope for further improvements without any additional trams. It is unlikely therefore that there will be any more major changes until such time as any of the proposed extensions to the system come to fruition! Perhaps some further increases in the Sunday shopping hours service would still be worthwhile – the frequencies were originally devised before Sunday trading came into being, and still do not reflect the fact that Sundays are now just as busy as weekdays for shoppers. This is particularly an issue on Line 3, serving the Purley Way area.