The next two West Midlands Metro trams to have batteries installed are seeing excellent progress in the fitting of the equipment although at the time of writing neither have been fully completed. The two trams are 23 and 19, which will bring it up to 10 of 21 being able to operate without overhead power.
23 is the tram which was first started on and is nearer to completion than 19 but it is anticipated that it will still be a couple of weeks before the former starts testing ahead of it entry into service. West Midlands Metro are planning for all the operational trams to be fitted with batteries ahead of the opening of the extension to Centenary Square which will be the first section to open without wires installed. How many of the 21 trams this will actually include remains to be seen as 26, 33 and 34 are all currently out of service.