One of the latest CAF Urbos100 to have been delivered for use on the West Midlands Metro has now entered service. 53 carried its first passengers on Monday 24th April having been used on daylight driver training for a few weeks previous to this.
53 has become the twelfth of the Urbos100s to have been used in service so far and is the first new tram into service since 48 on 4th January 2023. 53 was one of two trams to arrive in the West Midlands in March. It went through the usual process of being used on late testing/commissioning and was then used on daytime driver training from the start of April.
Often seen stabled in platform 3 at Wednesbury Parkway, Monday 24th April was the first time that it was provided to run the timetabled service. It was a replacement for 37 mid-morning with that tram being returned to depot with a fault.
There currently remains one Urbos100 at Wednesbury which has yet to enter service. That is 51 which arrived along with 53 and is at an earlier stage of its commissioning. Further trams will be delivered from Spain in the coming weeks and months.
Looking all shiny and, 53 is in platform 2 at Wednesbury Parkway as it prepares to enter service for the first time. 37 is in the adjacent platform 3 having been terminated short.
53 at Wolverhampton St George’s.
And at Grand Central bound for Edgbaston Village. (Photographs x3 by Andy Walters, 24th April 2023)
People get off 53 at West Bromwich Central probably completely oblivious that it’s the tram’s first day in service! (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 24th April 2023)