We’ve now reached the week when we have been promised a return to service for the West Midlands Metro (between Wolverhampton St George’s and Bull Street at least) but two days in and there is still no announcement of an exact date for the resumption.
The statement released at the end of May did say that trams would resume “week commencing Sunday 5th June” but many presumed that this would mean there would be a service from Sunday 5th June and so there was more disappointment from those wanting to use the system to get around. With no social media presence for the West Midlands Metro team on the Sunday it wasn’t until Monday 6th June that they tweeted:
“There are no services in operation today, our service will resume during this week. We will announce an update as soon as we have a date confirmed.”
Its still not known what service frequency will run will trams do start running again or even which trams will be running. Since our last update on those trams which had been seen out on driver familiarisation and testing just one further example has been noted – and that is the first Urbos3 seen for some time. 22 – still with its complete vinyl wrap for the Metro Training Academy – was seen at the end of last week.
In recent weeks the following trams have been seen out on the line:
22, 37 (although not for some time), 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45
Whether any more are close to a return isn’t known but presumably additional examples will be needed to ensure there is enough coverage to operate a service.
Trams have at least returned to Wolverhampton St George’s for the latest round of testing/driver training. This is 41 at the terminus. (Photograph by Andy Walters, 6th June 2022)
I’ve just an Westmidlands metro tram on test in bull street Birmingham city centre today