We now have official confirmation that the last of the Urbos100 trams delivered to West Midlands Metro has definitely entered service. 52’s official first day in service was on Friday 12th January 2024, although it was only used briefly on the day.
We had previously reported that 52 had entered service just before Christmas but after our contributors checked with West Midlands Metro it was confirmed that this was not the case and the tram remained stored in the depot yard waiting to be transferred over the commissioning area to the operations department.
The first confirmed entry into service for 52 is thus Friday 12th January 2024. It only ran a single out and back return trip to Birmingham (as a peak time extra) but is now available for further use and should be expected to be seen in service again over the coming days.
As a reminder, 52 was delivered on 22nd November 2023 to Wednesbury Depot and since then had been involved in the standard commissioning process including testing and mileage accumulation.
It is the 21st of the generation 3 Urbos100 trams to have entered service and this brings an end to the current order of trams. The previously rumoured extra tram said to be compensation for the issues with the earlier CAF trams is now not apparently going to happen with the decision having bee made that this offer would not be taken up.
52 sits at Edgbaston Village a few days after its first use in service.
From end of the line to the other as we catch up again with 52 at Wolverhampton Railway Station. (Both Photographs by Andy Walters, 14th January 2024)
52 was out all day on Saturday 13th January and Monday 15th January 2024 too.
So far it’s been out everyday since the 12th
Yesterday it was showing a fault on the screen
with low batteries ( if fault persits call control and ask to be removed from service) but it seemed to settle down and ran ok.
There were several failures yesterday early morning!
Midday 57 got has far has grand central and had low batteries so could go no further to Edgbaston , it was turned back still in service presumably it came off at wed parkway
Urbos 25/ 33 also out yesterday
17th 01 24
52 running with S2DL1 door isolated
saloon 2nd door double no 1 end