We reported earlier this year that finally there seemed to be an end in sight for construction work on the Wolverhampton Railway Station West Midlands Metro extension with a final period of works due to get underway. There’s no doubt its been a very protracted affair but with Midland Metro Alliance contractors on site there is now evidence that there is a concerted effort to finally complete the work.
We’ve covered this before but the line, which leaves the current line shortly before Wolverhampton St George’s and heads down Pipers Row, Railway Drive before terminating at the railway station, had originally been scheduled to open in 2020 but there have been numerous delays. Partly caused by the pandemic and latterly by supply chain issues it hadn’t exactly been a hive of activity but with any luck all that may now come to an end.
No exact date has been announced for its opening but before it does welcome its first passengers there will need to be commissioning and testing. Its also been announced that there will be some disruption to normal services whilst some of this takes place.
The one intermediate stop is provided on Pipers Row adjacent to the bus station. This shows the railway station bound platform and look closely for on the left there are contractors actually working on the extension!
Another view on Pipers Row with a small digger being used.
The other stop is provided at Wolverhampton Railway Station which is where trams will terminate. (Photographs x3 by Dan Noon, 10th February 2023)
From these pictures, it looks like the tramway has overhead wires, when I was told earlier that it’s a battery-powered line. Very comfusing.
Indeed the Wolverhampton Station extension features in the West Midlands Metro catenary free designs and the study carried out to retro fit the initial batch of Urbos 3 trams with batteries and build the later Urbos 100 trams with traction batteries. However the catenary free section was to start and end at Pipers Row stop with the section from the junction on Bilston Street to Pipers Row to be wired. This would serve two purposes, firstly the changeover would be with the tram stationary and secondly the short section of overhead would provide an overrun for trams leaving the wired section as is fairly normal in railway electrification schemes. I can’t comment on whether the original proposal has been amended but the photos don’t show any wiring beyond Piper Row.