Ever since Urbos 3 31 was unveiled in the new house style of West Midlands Metro back in July 2018 it has been a case of waiting and wondering when the next tram may receive the full vinyls. There have been advertising liveries where a little bit of blue has been included in the intervening period but no full blue livery – until now that is! The next tram chosen is 17 with this tram debuting in its new look on Monday 15th July 2019.
The livery now being carried on 17 is identical to that originally applied on 31 (which now has some differences following the receipt of its Cyrille Regis MBE name and silhouette figure) including the more standard smaller fleet numbers on the front under the West Midlands Metro logo. The more central sections of the livery also features darker blue sections.
Of note is that 17 made its first appearance in this livery on Monday 15th July – 31 had debuted in its new livery back on Monday 16th July 2018. So, almost exactly a year apart and there are two fully blue liveried trams entered service. It is hoped that the new brand for West Midlands Metro will now follow at a faster rate as if its keeps going at one a year it will around 2039 before they are all in the new livery! It will also be interesting to see how they apply advertising liveries once all trams are in the new livery.
For the record 17 and 31 are now in the full blue West Midland Metro with 18, 21 and 36 in advertising liveries featuring blue fronts and 19 in the special 20th anniversary livery. All other trams remain the silver and magenta Network West Midlands livery.
On its first day in service in the full blue livery 17 pauses at West Bromwich Central. (Photograph by Andy Walters, 15th July 2019)
A second shot of 17. This time we see it heading for Wolverhampton St George’s at Bull Street. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 15th July 2019)