Well, we now know that West Midlands Metro blue and lime green do not go together! The latest tram to receive the full blue West Midlands Metro blue livery has also become the first in these colours to receive adverts – with the company advertising on the tram being OLA (a company similar to Uber who have an app enabling you to hire taxis from your phone). 27 is the tram in question with it debuting in service with its new look on Sunday 1st September.
As with the last new blue tram, 27 is also without batteries and presumably is either quite some way down the pecking order to receive these or the advertising contract with OLA is a short-term one. As with the previous advert trams (which only received selected blue areas replacing the magenta but keeping the white and silver areas of the original livery) and similar to both Edinburgh and Nottingham the adverts on 27 are kept to the centre section and above the windows. The green adverts certainly stand out from the rest of the tram but they do say blue and green should never be seen together and judging by this advert that is very much the case!
27 at West Bromwich Central on its first day in service with the blue livery and OLA adverts. (Photograph by Andy Walters)
Another view of 27, again showing off its new look. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin)