Services on the West Midlands Metro returned to normality (or the normality we’ve come to expect in recent months since the opening of the Wolverhampton Railway Station extension) on Wednesday 10th April as expected following the major works which were undertaken over the Easter period. Whilst the big headline news was the joining up of the current line with the extension to Dudley at Wednesbury as we’ve already seen at the same time there was more work undertaken on the existing line with rail replacement at various stops. Andy Walters provides a photographic round-up of some of the work.
One of the tramstops which saw new track being laid was Soho Benson Road. In this sunny view we see contractors at the stop replacing the track with a lot of the block paving having been removed.
New track down at West Bromwich Central. The pedestrian crossing has been removed and work is awaited for its replacement.
At Wednesbury Great Western Street and the new junction was installed. This photo shows the tracks coming in from the left hand side from the new line.
Another look at the new junction.
As well as the work at the stops and on installing the junction, Sandwell Council were involved in the replacement of the bridge at Dudley Street. This work is still ongoing during evening. At the time of this image the tramway was clearly closed as the bridge was worked on. Pedestrian access on the steps was closed off.
The evening before services resumed 51 was sent out as a test tram to make sure that everything was fine with the newly installed infrastructure. The tram is under close supervision here.
At The Hawthorns and trams are running again on the new track. The pedestrian crossing has also been reinstalled.
Drivers have been instructed to release doors on the trams but not to automatically open the doors which has led a scrolling message to be displayed on the destination display. The messages says “To exit the tram, please press the illuminated button”. Part of that message is seen here. (All Photographs by Andy Walters)
Great to see the work completed on time????