We are going off to the West Midlands Metro’s Black Country line extension again this evening as we take another look at some of the recent progress on construction. This time we concentrate on the installation of the overhead support masts which has been one of the focuses of attention in recent months. Chris Allsop-Buckler took a walk along part of the route to capture these images.
At one time during the earlier stages of construction the Midland Metro Alliance website had mentioned that part of the route would be built without overhead wires – as parts of the Birmingham Westside extension are – but this has now been removed. It means we don’t know whether it will be overhead all the way or whether there will still be sections built for battery operation.
This view is at Bagnall Street looking towards Wednesbury. As we can see there are plenty of masts in place and there is also track as far as the eye can see. This will be on the section of tramway between Great Bridge and Wednesbury.
A bit further along the line this is the view through the security fencing at Eagle Lane. Again we see both track and overhead masts in place.
Further progress has also been made on installing the masts as far as Great Bridge tramstop. With the platform for the stop in the foreground, further in the distance on the right we can see some of the new masts.
Its not all about the masts as this shot from New Road bridge shows. We are looking towards Dudley Port in this view (close to Great Bridge tramstop again) as we see track in place and continued work. (All Photographs by Chris Allsop-Buckler, 2nd March 2025)
Good to get clarification at last on whether the Wednesbury to Dudley section will have overhead or not.