The tram hokey cokey at West Midlands Metro is continuing with 26 making its latest return from Worksop to the depot at Wednesbury on 1st-2nd October 2024.
As we have reported extensively over the past year or so, a small number of West Midlands Metro trams are being temporarily stored off site at Worksop whilst works take place at the depot which means capacity is currently reduced. Normally five trams are stored at the Harry Needle facility in the Nottinghamshire town, but to allow maintenance to be kept up-to-date with the trams they are swapped roughly every six months.
At the start of October it was the turn of 26 to move back from Worksop to Wednesbury with it being noted on the southbound side of M1 junction 28 at around 1730 on Tuesday 1st October 2024.
26 could possibly lay claim to being one of the most travelled members of the West Midlands Metro tram fleet – not only has it been to Worksop (twice!) but it also underwent repairs at Dudley from October 2022 and after suffering damage at the depot in June 2017 it went to Wolverton Works for six months between September 2017 and March 2018. Add in its mileage when originally delivered from Spain to the West Midlands and it is definitely a well travelled tram – it has even managed to run in service at times in its operating career as well!