It won’t surprise you to know that the third tram we take a look at in this retrospective series to see what happened to Midland Metro T69s is 03.
03 arrived in the UK from Italy on 17th June 1998 and would have to wait just under a year before it would be able to carry fare paying passengers with the opening of the Midland Metro system being delayed until 31st May 1999. The tram would keep the standard fleet livery until the end with its withdrawal coming in December 2013 – the third of the trams to be permanently taken out of service.
03 would remain stored at Wednesbury Depot until 11th March when Allely’s transported it by lorry to Long Marston for further storage. As with the previous trams in this series it has now been scrapped having been sold by e-auction in early 2018 with movement to Rotherham for its final journey taking place after April 2018.
03 is seen at Wolverhampton St George’s in this view on 5th June 2008 just arriving with a service from Birmingham Snow Hill. Note that the destination blind suggests that it will only be returning to Birmingham St Paul’s but this is likely to be in the process of changing and not where it will be going. (Photograph by Gareth Prior)
16th March 2016 and 03 leaves Wednesbury Depot for the last time on the back of a low loader. (Photograph by Andy Walters)