Its been a few weeks since we’ve seen a tram enter or re-enter service on the West Midlands Metro but Thursday 29th June was an important day in the history of Urbos3 20 as it retuned to service for the first time since undergoing repairs at Dudley.
20 is one of the trams which was sent away to the Very Light Innovation Centre in Dudley to allow its bodyside repairs (in effect panel replacement) to take place. We don’t have a date for when it made the move but we do know that it came back on 11th April 2023. As with many of the trams it has then taken a long time for it to be prepared for service with two and half months having passed.
The re-entry into service of 20 means that all but one of the “Dudley trams” that have been returned to Wednesbury have now run in service. These are 17, 20, 24, 26, 27, 29. The odd one out is 25. A further tram has also been moved to Dudley – 25 30 – but this has not yet been completed and returned to West Midlands Metro metals.
20 in service at Wednesbury Parkway. (Photograph by Michael Morton, 3rd July 2023)
Interestingly, 25 was stabled without a lot of panels in Wednesbury depot at the Parkway end on 3rd July 2023.