More repairs confirmed for Urbos3 trams as West Midlands Metro remains suspended

There is no end in sight to the suspension of services on the West Midlands Metro with repairs now being confirmed as required on the withdrawn Urbos3 trams after detailed bodywork inspections were completed. The service was suspended (this time) on Saturday 19^th March to allow for these inspections to take place and now they have it is known what repairs are needed to allow the trams to safely return to action.

The latest statement on the West Midlands Metro website says:

“Detailed inspections of the bodywork cracks have been undertaken on our older trams and this has identified that essential repairs are required. The manufacturer will need to replace body panels on our trams, which means that we expect the service to be suspended for a number of weeks.”

As revealed last weekend these cracks are around the doors on the 21 Urbos3 trams and are not the same cracks as discovered in 2021 which were around the wheel arches. They only effect the older trams which were built 2013 and 2015 by CAF in Spain with no cracks having been discovered in the eight new Urbos 100 trams. The Urbos 100s do continue to see test running taking place with a previous thought being the eight already in the UK could operate a limited service although whether this happens remains to be seen.

As with the last major service suspension the ticket acceptance arrangements put in place will only be available for a limited period with it now confirmed that these will be acceptable until Sunday 3^rd April. Up until that date Metro tickets and passes can be used on the following:

• All rail services between Wolverhampton and Birmingham
• National Express bus service 74 between Birmingham and West Bromwich
• National Express bus service 79 between West Bromwich and Wolverhampton
• National Express bus services 16 and 101 between Birmingham and Handsworth
• National Express bus services 9, 12/12A, 13/13A, 23, 24, 82, 87, 126, X8 and X10 to travel between affected stops in Birmingham City Centre

Then from Monday 4^th April it will be a case of make your own way however you see fit with no more ticket acceptance in place.

More brief details on what was happening has also been given in an interview on ITV Central News in an interview with an official from Transport for West Midlands stating that they should have a better idea next week as to how long it will be before enough trams are fixed to run a service again but that there would definitely be a service by the time of the July Commonwealth Games. Space within the depot is to be reconfigured to allow more than one tram to be repaired at a time and they are also exploring options to see whether some vehicles can be sent away for repairs to be completed quicker.

But as things stand at the moment there will be no West Midlands Metro service for some time and when there may be is anyone’s guess.

41 has been undergoing testing on several days since the suspension of the service. Its seen here heading through The Hawthorns northbound. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 23rd March 2022)