It looks as if we may not have too long to wait for more Urbos3s to enter service again on the West Midlands Metro as coming quickly after 21 being seen on test for the first time is 18. These are the second and third Urbos3 trams respectively which have broken cover from Wednesbury Depot in recent weeks and would seem to be a good sign that they have now been repaired and on the final road to re-entering service.
Without wanting to go into the issues too deep for the hundredth time, all Urbos3s were withdrawn from service back in March after the discovery of bodyside cracks. These were different cracks to those seen before (these around the doors) and the net result was that a decision was made that there would need to be panel replacement rather than just welding of the defective sections as before. The promise made was that there would be enough trams ready for a service to resume at the end of May.
Fast forward to June, and services finally returned on Thursday 9th June and as well as being a truncated service it was maintained by mostly newer Urbos 100 trams and one solitary Urbos3 (22). But now with both 18 and 21 testing hopefully we are about to see an upturn in fortunes for the Urbos3s.
Repairs of other are ongoing. 28 has left Wednesbury for Wolverton Works where it will be repaired and its been reported that another four will follow it. A report in the latest edition of Today’s Railways UK also says that more will be going to the Light Rail Innovation Centre in Dudley.
21 on test at Priestfield. The large white sections show where panels have been replaced.
The second of the Urbos3 under test is 18 and we capture it at Wednesbury Parkway. (Photographs x2 by Andy Walters, 13th June 2022)
A close-up of the repanelled area around the doors. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 11th June 2022)