Its been some time since a new tram entered service on the West Midlands Metro (over two months in fact) but that chanced on Saturday 30th September when 54 carried its first passengers on the line between Edgbaston Village and Wolverhampton Railway Station.
54 had been delivered back on 5th July 2023 but there hadn’t been a great deal of urgency to get the tram into service with sufficient vehicles available to operate the current timetable amongst the already commissioned Urbos100s and the repaired earlier Urbos3 trams from the original batch of trams built 2013-5. However, commissioning and testing did take place with Friday 29th September seeing the tram make a final full length journey to allow it to be fully cleared for service, which duly happened the following day.
The entry into service of 54 means that of the trams delivered to Wednesbury only 58 remains to be commissioned for service. This was the last to be delivered with it turning up back on 9th August 2023. A further three trams are still expected from Spain – 52, 55 and 59.
The last new tram to enter service had been 49 which first ran on 26th July 2023.
54 seen at Wednesbury Parkway on its last day of testing before entering service. (Photograph by Michael Morton, 29th September 2023)
54 on the streets of Wolverhampton in service for the first time as the fourth tram of the day. Its seen here in this photo at Pipers Row on the way to Edgbaston Village.
54 meets up with sister tram 56 at Loxdale. We’re looking south towards Birmingham here and 54 is off to W’ton Station and 56 to Edgbaston Village. (Photographs x2 by Andy Walters, 30th September 2023)