Ah, where would we be without the constant movement of West Midlands Metro trams? Its certainly a way to keep everyone on their toes as trams seem regularly go for road tips, whether that be to Dudley for repairs or Worksop where some have been stored for the past 18 months or so. We now have another update, including photos, with trams going to and from Dudley the main focus.
As you will no doubt recall, the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre in Dudley has been a location which West Midlands Metro have been using to complete repairs on the original Urbos3 trams. This came about after cracks were discovered on these trams which led to the complete suspension of the network for a time. The first set of trams for repair at Dudley commenced in 2022 and it appeared that in 2023 these had all finished, however, earlier this year more trams started to head that way for work (mainly different examples to those which went previously, but not exclusively), and that has continued in recent months.
The latest moves of trams to and from Dudley commenced on Friday 11th April when 30 made the move from Wednesbury. This is the second time that this particular tram had paid a visit to Dudley with it originally going almost exactly two years previously (14th April 2023).
It joined 21 and 28 at the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre, but as has been the case for the last few moves this wasn’t the situation for long. 21 had gone to Dudley on 4th March 2025 and it was ready to head back to Wednesbury with departure taking place early evening on 11th April. It made the relatively short road journey arriving at the depot around about 1920.
Meanwhile, the other location outside of the West Midlands Metro where you can see their trams is the Harry Needle facility at Worksop, but that doesn’t look like being the case for long. Its thought that 26 is now the only tram to be stored there and its return to the depot can’t be too far off to bring an end to the storage saga.
But just because trams are back at Wednesbury it doesn’t necessarily mean they are available for service, especially when there is a potential fleet of 42 trams of which currently fewer than half of those are needed to operate the standard service. Although with extensions to come that picture will change once again!
21 is all loaded on the back of the lorry and gets ready to depart from the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre with the Police escort on standby.
A side-on look at 21 as it makes its way home.
And back at Wednesbury. (All Photographs by Andy Walters, 11th April 2025)