There seems no slowing down in the return to or entering service for the first time on the West Midlands Metro with Urbsos3 27 now on the road to a return having been used for Driver Training. Its first appearance out on the mainline was Wednesday 17th May and although its not yet been used in passenger service its use means four of the trams went to Dudley have now returned to action during May so far.
27 had originally left Wednesbury on 9th December 2022 and after its repairs were completed at Dudley it was back on West Midlands Metro metals on 23rd January 2023. Despite the fact that it had been back for almost four months it hadn’t been prepared for use again – until now!
May has already seen 24, 26 and 29 enter service plus Urbos100 51 for the first time so it does seem to be a concerted effort to get as many trams operational on the line and will hopefully mean there is more variety on the daily service than seen in recent months.
Of note is that 27 is in full blue vinyls but both 24 and 29, which pre-dated it back out, are still running with plain white panels.
27 on Driver Training on its first day back in use. (Photograph by Andy Walters, 17th May 2023)