The 60th Bombardier M5000 for Manchester Metrolink was delivered to Queen’s Road Depot on the morning of Saturday 17th November. 3060 arrived on the back of a low loader with number vinyls already in place although the livery embellishments have yet to be applied.
As with all previous deliveries of the M5000s, 3060 arrived at Queen’s Road Depot where it will receive initial commissioning works before eventually being moved over to Trafford Depot for temporary storage. It is likely to remain stored until the complete Metrolink network is converted to TMS operation although there is a chance it could receive redundant ATS and VRS equipment from withdrawn T68s.
Of the 60 M5000s now delivered to Manchester 39 are now available for service with 3001–3035 and 3037–3040 fitted with the ATS and VRS equipment for use on the current network with 3036 also receiving the equipment at the moment. Other members of the class are used for testing and training purposes on the yet to be opened routes. Metrolink currently have 94 of the M5000s on order from Bombardier and they are expected to continue being delivered at regular intervals until 2014 when they will eventually completely replace the T68s and T68As.