Yes, this is a “stating the obvious” kind of article but it may not have escaped your notice that the first phase of the Birmingham Eastside extension as far as Millennium Point did not open in late 2025 as had been hoped. Although testing was underway in 2025, issues were discovered which has meant its opening has been pushed back further with the latest being “early 2026”.
The Eastside extension will initially leave the current Birmingham City Centre extension at the Corporation Street delta junction before heading onto Lower Bull Street and then onto a stop at Albert Street before going to Millennium Point where a temporary terminus has been provided outside the Clayton Hotel.
Testing and driver training had been taking place in the latter part of 2025 and when the new timetable which saw Wolverhampton St George’s join the network permanently was introduced this was accelerated with some trams going out of service at Bull Street in order to go onto the extension.
But during this testing and commissioning phase issues were found which led to the decision to delay the opening of the line. No official date was ever announced publicly and that is still the case although it is hoped that it will be carrying passengers at some point in early 2026.
Meanwhile, the other extension currently under construction – the Black Country line to Flood Street in Dudley – is still seeing work in order to bring that phase to a close. Testing will then follow and its that as early as possible in 2026 timeline that Transport for West Midlands and the Midland Metro Alliance are following for this one as well. This line is also split into phases with the section to Dudley just phase one before phase two as far as Merry Hill comes later.