It was announced back in March that £5 million had been awarded to replace the tracks on Bilston Road in Wolverhampton on Midland Metro and it has now been revealed that this work will last for five months from July with no trams serving Wolverhampton St George’s at all during this period.
Initially trams from Birmingham Snow Hill will only be able to run as far as Priestfield with passengers completing their journeys into Wolverhampton by bus (National Express buses will be accepting and selling Metro tickets). However as the work progresses it will be possible to extend the trams to The Royal although at this stage Centro are being non-committal about just how far through the closure this will be.
It is necessary to replace the 15 year old tracks on Bilston Road – which currently form part of the only on-street running section of Midland Metro – as they have started to become worn and it is feared without replacement the reliability of the service would start to be seriously affected. As well as replacing the tracks – including crossovers – the road will be re-surfaced.
The closure will also enable the platforms at Wolverhampton St George’s to be lengthened to enable the CAF Urbos 3 trams to easily use this stop.
Works will commence in July and should be fully completed by November.
Peter Cameron, Centro spokesman, said: “The work will be carried out in two stages and will require the Metro system to be closed between Priestfield and St George’s. The first phase will take place at The Royal and once completed this will allow us to run trams to the stop while the second phase of work leading up to St George’s is carried out. The replacement will see a £5m upgrade to the existing rails as well as preparing the platforms for the arrival of the new fleet of trams. We have been reminding passengers that work to upgrade the Midland Metro tracks along the Bilston Road will be taking place later this year. Preparatory work will begin in the summer and we will be announcing the specific dates of the closure later in the year.”
From next month sights such as this of 08 running to Birmingham will not be possible for a period of five months with the track due for replacement. This is 08 on 18th March 2014. (Photo: David Bosher)
As in the current issue of Tramways and urban Transit, the time must come when it is possible, as it was in days of yore, to maintain a service whilst works continue. This happens on the continent – and, in fact, over twenty years ago, I recall the trams in Ostend traversing the town on the “wrong” side of the road, klaxons blaring, so that a service can be maintained. If the design of the tracks don’t make this possible, then the matter should have been addressed at the design stage. The tramway is a public service and needs to regard uninterrupted operation as paramount. People will soon get fed up of it always being dug up.
Paul Routledge
Back in the early 1990s when much of the Metrolink track in Manchester City Centre had to be repaired after defects in the polymer system were found they did manage to carry the work out at night in short sections and maintain a service during the day. A small stock of new rail was established to allow short lengths to be removed and replaced with new sections each night. The removed rail was then stripped of its polymer coating and recoated before being used again. Where worn rail is being replaced like for like replacement of plain line may be possible in overnight possessions but the duration of the work would be extended.
it would be nice if in the uk, that urban metro systems could run like L-train systems above the ground.
What I really have difficulty understanding is the time it takes to replace modern trackwork. A hundred years ago a whole system could be constructed from scratch in 5 months! So why it should take so long just to replace sme worn track, especially with modern powered equipment available to help, is beyond me!
I was recently told the Sheffield track replacement couldn’t be done in the rain! Why? It’s tike tramway engineers had their laptops taken away and were given a good old pick and shovel instead!
An added difficulty 100 years ago was the fact that the track being replaced was laid down in roads constructed with granite setts each of which had to be replaced individually by hand. None of your tarmac and concrete then. As for trackwork on systems being built from scratch in only a few months, the simple answer there is that labour was cheap so they simply threw more and more people into the build. These days, they could use more people because it seems an inordinate length of time is spent setting up and then dismantling the very machines that are supposed to speed up the build.
I was in Brussels a few years ago and caught the tram to Schaerbeek station.On the way they were replacing all the trackwork at a major junction.It didn’t stop the trams running.When I returned a couple of hours later you could see the progress made in that few hours.
So for 5 months, disabled people using mobility scooters are unable to travel into Wolverhampton by public transport as we cannot use the buses and have to pre book trains in both directions. What is being done to help us?
The metro is becoming a laughing stock. Having endured the unreliable service for months now I’ve switched to the train. Midland metro’s total disregard for it’s passengers is shameful. I got sick of getting to a stop to be told that the service was not going any further without any reason been given.