Trams on television alert! The latest series of BBC’s Great British Railway Journeys saw Michael Portillo embark on another set of journeys around the UK and one, which featured the Black Country heavily, saw him see behind the scenes at the West Midlands Metro.
During the episode – which was episode 14 of series 16, day 4 of his Black Country trip – Michael stopped at Curzon Street, where he learned about a new interchange under construction to link HS2 with the expanding Metro network. He also visited Jewellery Quarter before boarding a tram towards Wolverhampton.
At Wednesbury he got off the tram and was given a behind the scenes tour of the Metro depot and control room. There he met with Managing Director Sophie Allison, Rolling Stock Production Manager Matt Bardsley, and Baljit Singh to learn all about the day to day operations of the tramway.
Sophie Allison commented: “During his visit, Michael was as enthusiastic as you would expect and took a great interest in all aspects of our operation. He was particularly intrigued by our state-of-the-art tram simulator and even took to the controls himself under the watchful eye of Training & Development Manager Tony Furnival.
“Featuring on the show provided a fantastic opportunity to showcase the fantastic work being done by the Metro team and the benefits of tram travel, and I would like to thank everyone who played their part on the day of Michael’s visit.”
The programme also featured film of the trams in action – including some library footage of trams still in the old magenta and silver livery!
- The episode – and indeed the whole series – can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer. This particular episode can be seen at here