Friday 23rd January saw the arrival at Wednesbury of the latest CAF built Urbos 3 tram when 34 was delivered following its long journey from Spain, on the back of two loaders as usual. Unlike most recent deliveries which arrived early in the morning this time the tram arrived at its new home at 1450 and was unloaded shortly after 1700 before being moved into the workshops for initial commissioning.
34 is the 18th of the initial order of 20 to arrive on Midland Metro and is the first tram to be delivered in 2015 with the previous delivery being 33 back on 16th December. 34 is likely to have a wait before entering service though with testing and commissioning of the earlier vehicles still ongoing. Recently the most common tram out on test has been 30 with 31–33 seeing very little use.
Away from the Urbos 3s there has been little movement with the T69s although 05 did make a return to service last week despite it previously being believed that it had been withdrawn from service. It ran in service between Tuesday 20th and Friday 23rd January but has since been noted as being stabled in the depot yard along with other withdrawn members so its current status is unclear. Of note is that 04 has been fitted with new vinyl flooring throughout – an usual move for a tram which looks as if it doesn’t have long left before withdrawal.