Midland Metro LRV update

Since our last update from Midland Metro we have seen the 16th Urbos 3 arrive in the West Midlands whilst the T69 fleet continues to be in a state of flux with vehicles seemingly being taken out of service and then returned to operational condition a few days later! Whereas a few weeks ago it seemed the end was definitely very close of the T69s more recent weeks have seen an upsurge in the use of T69s.

Urbos 3 32 was delivered to the depot at Wednesbury shortly before 1000 on Tuesday 4th November. As with all previous arrivals it was delivered on the back of two low loaders before being unloaded and temporarily connected. It was then moved into the Workshops where initial commissioning is undertaken ahead of a full testing and commissioning process on the mainline.

During October the daily service was starting to see more and more Urbos 3s used with some days seeing less than half of the trams in action being the older T69s. However as the month continued the fortunes seemed to reverse as more attention was paid to testing the CAF built Urbos 3s. But as November progressed the Urbos 3s started to take on further diagrams. So in effect it is very difficult to predict on a daily basis just which trams will be in use operating the service.

Of the 10 T69s which remain on the network there are six which are believed to be available for service on a daily basis: 04, 06, 10, 11, 12 and 16. Of the others 03 is known to have been withdrawn but there are question marks on the status of the others. It is thought that 05 was taken out of service in mid-November, 08 has been stabled in the same position at the bottom end of the depot sidings since 4th November and 09 has not been seen in service for a few weeks either.

Urbos 3s up to 31 have been noted at least once on the mainline with both 29 and 31 seen testing over the past few weeks. It is not believed that 32 has yet made a test run. Up to six Urbos 3s have run in service at the same time – a full Sunday service was operated with the new trams in action – but the holy grail of a full weekday Urbos 3 service has not yet been achieved.

No official word has been received from Midland Metro as to just when they are planning to introduce a full Urbos 3 service or when the last T69s will operate in service although as soon as it is announced we will let you know!

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6 Responses to Midland Metro LRV update

  1. David Mee says:

    Both 5 and 9 definitely in service on Thursday 20th November just over a week ago – I travelled on both!

  2. Ian Buck says:

    05 was in service on 24th November, 29 and 30 were also out on test running.

  3. Stephen Guest says:

    09 CAME OUT OF THE DEPOT ON MONDAY 1ST DECEMBER (TODAY) AT 06.01am . ALSO OUT 06, 18, 20 & 22

  4. andy says:

    05 last worked around 14th nov then was taken out of service for a while and dumped down the far end ( power off ) next to 03 .
    but 05 later came back out on the 20th nov and has been running since .

    09 also went awol for a while but also came back .

    08 went off line around 24th oct. came back out around 01-nov. Then while working from snowhill to priestfield on 04th nov
    was swopped with 16 at wed / GW st and i haven’t seen it work since
    it was also dumped down the far end but it has moved up to the maintenance dept and back again a few times all under its own power since?

    Friday afternoon 29th nov it was towed into the depot by the unimog
    today it sits outside the depot again.
    I doubt we will see it again has there is no need for it.

    we are down to just six working T69s though ,with eight Urbos now available for traffic & full service of six urbos on Sundays
    & normally Five in the week plus five T69s and two Urbos out on test .

    Urbo 19 The one that fails on every Trip, has been out on test Again the last two weeks and is now back in service today till…..wont be far off .

    urbo 19 has 11031km on the clock , 20 has 30564km

    urbo 21 ? i think is now a static display tram .

    Urbos 28-29-30-31 have at times been out on test over the last few weeks .

  5. paul says:

    At least 6 ubro trams was running today between Wednesbury and priestfield. Have not seen tram 17 on the line

  6. andy says:

    today wed, 18-19-20-22-24-25-26 only three T69s 06-12-16

    17 was used for evening driver training in the summer a few times but hasn’t been out since ,it has been used has a test bed to test all software updates before going into all the urbos and has also donated a few parts for other trams while parts were on order. it did make one run about two weeks ago so you may see out soon on test?

    what was left of the old BRCW in smethwick factory went up in flames in the night .

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