Now that the Wolverhampton Railway Station extension has opened to passengers there are only two current extension projects on the West Midlands Metro. One will see trams run to Digbeth as part of the Birmingham Eastside line with the other due to head to Dudley and Brierley Hill. It is the latter line which is due to open first with “late 2024” named as the planned opening date for the first phase of the line. In this pictorial update with photos from Andy Walter we take a look at some recent photos of what has been happening construction wise on the line.
The Brierley Hill extension will leave the original West Midlands Metro line to the east of Wednesbury Great Western and will then travel for 11km via Tipton and Dudley. Much of the first section will use a former heavy rail corridor but there has had to be significant work on a number of bridges on this section.
Within Dudley there is on street running and its here that the initial line will end. Due to funding constraints the project has had to be split into two phases with phase one from Wednesbury to Dudley and then phase two will complete the line to Brierley Hill. Phase one will terminate at Flood Street and there are due to be nine new Metro stops on this section.
At the Wednesbury end of the line and there is work on trackbed to connect the two lines. This is taken from Black Country New Road and looks towards the Metro depot.
Again taken from Black Country New Road this photo is looking towards the location of Great Bridge tramstop which will be located at the bridge.
Going further along the line towards Dudley and work is taking place here at Horsley Road looking towards Dudley.
View from the footpath by Dudley Port railway looking back towards Wednesbury.
On 9th October this is the view from Tipton Road Bridge and is the site of Tipton Road tramstop.
Moving closer to Dudley and track starts to feature in the photos. This is from Tipton Road looking towards the Zoo.
The Very Light Rail Innovation Centre is to the right with West Midlands Metro track running past.
This is the location of Dudley Town Centre tramstop with work underway. (All Photographs by Andy Walters, October 2023)
Thank you for this update. It’s good to see the progress made.
Is there a planned date for the delta junction installation as surely this will close line one while the connection take place, meaning no trams to Brum.
Bearing in mind other delayed openings I really doubt that the line will open in 2024, in fact I’d put money on it!
There is zero chance of this opening in 2024