And there were 18! West Midlands Metro Urbos100 54 has become the latest tram to be delivered to Wednesbury Depot with it arriving on Wednesday 5th July having made the usual journey across from Spain and the CAF factory at Zaragoza.
With access to the depot now available during the day the tram was able to be delivered in the usual lunchtime slot (as have most of the other recent deliveries) with it receiving a Police escort into the West Midlands to travel along the local roads on the approach to the depot.
As mentioned above this is the 18th of the 22 Urbos100 trams now on order and is the first to have been delivered for almost exactly a month – the last arrival was 49 which turned up on 6th June. With 54 arriving the only trams to arrive now are 52, 55, 58 and the “extra” tram 59 (added to the order as a result of the problems with the original Urbos3 trams).
Of those 18 trams which have been delivered 38–48, 51, 53, 56 and 57 have all run in service with 49 and 50 still in the commissioning stage.
- Video footage of the tram arriving at the depot is available on Podbaba Transport at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFu0djIgycM
54 arrives and makes the final slow approach to the depot.
Reversing through the gates as 54 arrives at its new home. (Both Photographs by Michael Morton, 5th July 2023)