Services will resume on Midland Metro as planned on Monday 15th April following the completion of work to allow the new CAF trams to be able to operate smoothly across the whole network. All platforms have been narrowed by approximately 100mm during a two week closure of the complete line between Birmingham Snow Hill and Wolverhampton St George’s in preparation for the first of the new trams to start operation in 2014.
The work was undertaken by a team of over 50 engineers who worked around the clock to make sure that it was completed both on time and on budget. It was decided that the Easter school holiday period was the best time for the work to take place as it is traditionally a quieter time on the trams and would cause the least disruption.
Paul Griffiths, Centro’s Metro Programme Director, said: “The essential work to alter the platforms along the Midland Metro route is nearly complete and passengers will be able to start using the trams again from Monday. This is a major step forward for this project and paves the way for the arrival of the new, bigger trams which passengers will start seeing on tracks next year. The extension will bring major economic benefits to our region as well as increasing capacity for passengers and we are now ready to take the next steps in this project.”
It is expected that the first of the 20 strong fleet of CAF built trams will arrive before the end of this year and they will then start to enter service from 2014 on the current line. This
will mean that Centro can increase the service frequency to 10 trams an hour which will up the capacity by 40% helping to ease overcrowding often seen in the morning peak. All of the trams will have arrived and be in service by 2015 when the short extension across Birmingham City Centre to New Street station opens.
Re Birmingham, what happened to the originally planned extension through to Fiveways?