Thursday 2nd November saw yet another West Midlands Metro tram on the road as 37 – the last of the Urbos3 trams to be built – was transported from Wednesbury Depot to Worksop for storage whilst building works continue at the depot.
As with many of its sister trams, 37 is no stranger to life on the back of a lorry. Originally delivered from Spain in July 2015 the tram was accepted for service on 6th April 2016 before it was named Ozzy Osbourne by the man himself in May 2016. It received batteries and ran for the first time with these fitted on 4th February 2019 but it ended up going back to Spain on 17th October 2020 for repairs. It didn’t get back to the West Midlands until 15th June 2021. 37 had still been running in service at the start of October but has now been chosen for movement away from the network for storage at Worksop.
Collected by Allely’s in the morning of Thursday 2nd November the tram was moved by road to Worksop and is now the fifth West Midlands Metro tram to be stored there. The others are 17, 26, 29 and 34. The storage is only temporary with all trams due to return once the building work at the depot has been concluded in 2024.
In pretty dismal weather conditions 37 comes out of the depot to start its journey to Nottinghamshire and temporary storage.
37 heads away from Wednesbury complete with Police escort.
Another photo of 37 as it is hauled along the road and to Worksop. (All Photographs by Andy Walters, 2nd November 2023)
So the system that a few months ago was running a reduced service because it didn’t have enough operational vehicles is now sennding operational vehicles away because it can’t accomodate them. I wonder how much this fiasco is costing and who is paying for it all?
Because there no room for them all at the moment, they actually constructing extra spaces for they’re all return back
Some great footage on YouTube of them all lined up alongside brand new and never to run again trains!