Saturday 25th September saw the delivery of Manchester Metrolink’s latest M5000 with 3131 arriving in the city having been transported from Germany via Hull as with all other recent deliveries. 3131 is the eleventh of this new batch of trams to be delivered and will now go through the usual commissioning process.
3131’s arrival on 25th September comes just two weeks after 3130 was delivered and is the quickest two trams have been delivered since 3113 and 3114 came in April 2016.
Both 3130 and 3131 will now be commissioned for service over the coming weeks and when they enter service it will should give additional capacity on the network perhaps allowing further doubles to be used in service.
Of the 11 trams delivered of this batch 3121–3129 have been commissioned for service with 3129 the last to enter service on 29th August 2021.
3131 arrives in Manchester for the first time. (Photograph by Ben Worsley, 25th September 2021)