This may be a bit of a cheat but we continue with the “Old(er) and New” series by heading to the now West Midlands Metro and former Midland Metro system. The premise of the series remains the same as we go to the same location on the network and view something old and something new, but whereas when in Blackpool it was a heritage tram and a modern tram for the West Midlands Metro its one of the first generation of the modern trams – the T69s – and one of the newer CAF built trams which are featured. We start off at the end of the original line – and somewhere which currently sees no trams, old or new.
The T69s ran on the network between the opening in 1999 and 2015 (although the first example was withdrawn as early as 2006) when they were replaced by a fleet of CAF built trams (initially 21 Urbos3s before another 21 of the next generation Urbos100s came along). We see T69 04 here at Wolverhampton St George’s on 14th March 2011 when the stop still had tracks either side of an island platform. The tram is at the side that remains with track today – although it was 28th August 2023 the last time that it was served by trams. 04 would be withdrawn in February 2015 and move for storage at Long Marston on 23rd March 2016. It has since been scrapped.
We move on to 31st March 2023 for this image of the new as we see Urbos100 47 standing at the stop. The platform has now been lengthened and the track is only available on one side with the other side being used by buses/coaches instead. 47 was delivered to Wednesbury Depot on 28th September 2022 and accepted for service on 12th December 2022. (Both Photographs by Gareth Prior)