Appeal II, The Robert Owen 1004 Vans. The Original since 1966, The Robert Owen 1005 Sooty and Co, Greater Altrincham Enterprise, The Railway Mission 1006 Vans. The Original since 1966 1007 East Lancashire Railway, Red nose day 09, The Guinness Record Breaker, Air Malta 1008 Manchester Airport, Erotica G-Mex 2004, Steve Hyde 1009 CIS 125 Special, Co-Operative Insurance, Virgin Megastores 1010 Manchester Champion, West One, Golden Jubilee 2002 1011 Sponsored by Tesco, Superb, Virgin Megastores, System One 1012 Kerry, Cathrine Hallet, Virgin Megastores 1013 The Fusilier, The Grandier Guardsman 1014 Vans. The Original since 1966, Manchester 2000, The Great Manchester Runner, The city of Drama, Margret Richardson, Brian “Kidder” Samuels 1015 Sparky, Magic 1152, Skill City, Burma Star 1016 Signal Express, Erotica G-Mex 2004, Virgin Megastores, Farewell T68 1017 Rosie, Bury Hospice 1018 Sir Matt Busby, Waterstones Manchester Arndale, The Hire Flyer, Electra, The Co-oprative Food 1019 The Eric Black 1020 Lancashire Fusilier, The David Graham CBE, Mary Poppins 1021 The Greater Manchester Radio, Sony Centre Arndale, Starlight Express 1022 The Poppy Appeal, The Graham Ashworth, The Manchester Evening News 1023 Mike Mabey 1024 The John Greenwood, Jeff Jardine 1025 Christie Metro Challenger, Fred G Fitter 1026 The Power 2001 The Joe Clarke OBE, West One 2002 Sony Centre Arndale 2003 Traveller 2000, Dave Hansford 2004 Salford Lads’ Club 2005 Wh-Smith West One 2006 City of Salford 2000, West One, Sony Centre Arndale Withdrawal In 2008, the entire T-68/A fleet underwent a refurbishment programme, which was designed to keep them in service for at least another ten years. However, the newer Bombardier M5000 trams introduced from 2009 proved to be considerably more reliable than the T-68/A fleet; which averaged 5,000 miles between breakdowns, while the M5000 trams at introduction averaged 20,000 miles. The M5000 trams are also 10 tonnes lighter than the T-68/A's, causing less track wear, and using less energy. In addition to this many of the T-68s were found to be suffering from corrosion to their solebars, which would have required further expensive repairs to keep them in service. In July 2012, Transport for Greater Manchester decided that it would be more cost effective to withdraw all of the T-68/T-68As and replace them with M5000s with the first T-68 withdrawn in 2012. The final three T68s were withdrawn on 10 February 2014 and the last two T-68As on 30 April 2014. To bid farewell to the T-68s, on