One of the highlights of the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation (BCIMO) Family Fun Day at the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre in Dudley was the chance for the public to get their first rides on the Coventry Very Light Rail vehicle. This was the first chance for the public and likely to be the only chance to do so at Dudley with the vehicle set to move to Coventry shortly for the on-street tests to take place there later this month and in June. Photos of the vehicle in action come from Mark Hambly.
Such was the interest in taking a ride, that some visitors queued for up to two hours to be one of the 20 seated passengers on one of the four trips per hour which ran during the day. The ride began by traversing the 15-metre radius reversing loop before heading through the 948 yards of Dudley Tunnel and almost to the end of the line, before returning to the starting point. Ride quality and performance of the vehicle was impressive, with rapid acceleration from the 15km/h within ‘station limits’ to 40km/h upon entering the tunnel.
This was just one of the attractions at the Family Fun Day with more tram interest also on site with former Midland Metro tram 16 now there to be used for testing various light rail products of the future.
On-board the vehicle and a view of the driver’s position at one end.
A queue of people wait to board the vehicle as it arrives back with another trip along the line.
A view of the vehicle as it traverses the 15 metre radius balloon loop with another load of passengers.
The vehicle is battery operated and those batteries need charging of course. This image shows it under the rapid charging point as it gets some more power for its demonstration runs. (All Photographs by Mark Hambly, 17th May 2025)
There was also a Parry People Mover on site, but nobody seems to have noticed that.
Is this innovative track system the same ‘carpet track’ John Parry was talking about over a decade ago?
The PPM was indeed noted and, as I commented more than once to people I spoke with at the Dudley event, the late John Parry’s thinking in the 1980s and 1990s on low-cost rail transport was in many ways a precursor to the VLR concept of the 2020s shortly to be demonstrated in Coventry.
Is the power system similar to the iTram bus in London where it charges at stations