{"id":16392,"date":"2017-01-18T20:36:25","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T20:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=16392"},"modified":"2017-01-22T10:44:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T10:44:31","slug":"urbos3-18-bids-adios-to-midland-metro-%e2%80%93-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=16392","title":{"rendered":"Urbos3 18 bids adios to Midland Metro \u2013 for now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Midland Metro\u2019s Urbos 3 <strong>18<\/strong> has left Wednesbury Depot to return to Spain for the fitting of batteries to allow its eventual operation on sections of line which will not have overhead wires installed. All of the trams will carry batteries but it is expected that only the first one \u2013 with <strong>18<\/strong> the chosen tram \u2013 will need to return to Spain for this to take place.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><strong>18<\/strong> last ran in service on 6th January after which it was withdrawn from service to allow preparations to take place for its move to Spain. Having been kept inside the depot for over a week it was then dragged out into the yard and moved on the departure road where it was split into two (due to their length the Urbos 3 trams have always been moved in two sections) and loading commenced onto the two trailers on Tuesday 17th January.<\/p>\n<p>Despite both trailers being more or less ready for departure that day they remained parked at the depot until they left on the morning of Wednesday 18th January bound for Poole and then Zaragoza, Spain. It is expected that <strong>18<\/strong> will return to the West Midlands in July.<\/p>\n<p>It is planned that all of the Urbos 3 trams will be fitted with batteries as significant sections of the enlarged Midland Metro network will not have overhead installed partly to reduce costs but also in culturally sensitive areas where it is thought that the wires would ruin the outlook.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16393\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=16393\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16393\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16393\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16393\" title=\"18-aw\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18-aw-550x309.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16393\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">18 on 5th January shortly before withdrawal. (Photograph by Andy Walters)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_16453\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=16453\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16453\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16453\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16453\" title=\"18-wcma\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18-wcma-550x366.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18-wcma-550x366.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18-wcma-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/18-wcma.jpg 1210w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16453\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">18 is loaded onto the low loader at Wednesbury for its journey back to Spain. (Photograph courtesy of West Midlands Combined Authority)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_16454\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=16454\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16454\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16454\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16454\" title=\"victoriasq-wcma\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/victoriasq-wcma-550x366.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/victoriasq-wcma-550x366.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/victoriasq-wcma-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/victoriasq-wcma.jpg 1290w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artists impression of a tram running through Victoria Square without wires installed. (Courtesy of West Midlands Combined Authority)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Midland Metro\u2019s Urbos 3 18 has left Wednesbury Depot to return to Spain for the fitting of batteries to allow its eventual operation on sections of line which will not have overhead wires installed. All of the trams will carry &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=16392\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16392"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16456,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions\/16456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}