After a gap of 80 days trams are once again running on the West Midlands Metro. Although its not a full service yet – we’ll have to wait for more trams to be repaired before that happens – it does mark a significant step towards normality on the network with trams now operating between Wolverhampton St George’s and Bull Street every 12-15 minutes during the main part of the day.
As expected services resumed on Thursday 9th June and it was a service dominated by Urbos 100s with just one Urbos3 out. The complete list of trams used were 22, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 and 45. This was the very first passenger use for 43 and now means that seven of the initial eight Urbos 100 trams delivered to the West Midlands have now all been cleared for service (and all seven of them were in action of the first day!).
The fact that 22 was the only Urbos3 in service again leads credence to the likelihood that it is the only Urbos3 to have received the bodyside panel repairs around the doors. Which means it looks like there are still another 20 to come – with it taking nearly three months for one to be done you can only hope that repairs will now be accelerated somewhat, otherwise it will be about 5 years before they are all ready for service again!
The word that trams were back had obviously got out as seen at Bilston Central with passengers getting off 38 as it runs north to Wolverhampton. Notice that the destination display no longer says just plain Wolverhampton but is now W’ton St George’s.
42 arrives at Bilston Central on the way to Bull Street.
On board the trams. (All Photographs by Andy Walters, 9th June 2022)