{"id":49256,"date":"2023-04-26T21:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T20:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=49256"},"modified":"2023-04-26T19:43:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T18:43:56","slug":"in-pictures-west-midlands-metro-53-enters-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=49256","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: West Midlands Metro 53 enters service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the latest CAF Urbos100 to have been delivered for use on the West Midlands Metro has now entered service. <strong>53<\/strong> carried its first passengers on Monday 24<sup>th<\/sup> April having been used on daylight driver training for a few weeks previous to this.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>53<\/strong> has become the twelfth of the Urbos100s to have been used in service so far and is the first new tram into service since 48 on 4<sup>th<\/sup> January 2023. <strong>53<\/strong> was one of two trams to arrive in the West Midlands in March. It went through the usual process of being used on late testing\/commissioning and was then used on daytime driver training from the start of April.<\/p>\n<p>Often seen stabled in platform 3 at Wednesbury Parkway, Monday 24<sup>th<\/sup> April was the first time that it was provided to run the timetabled service. It was a replacement for <strong>37<\/strong> mid-morning with that tram being returned to depot with a fault.<\/p>\n<p>There currently remains one Urbos100 at Wednesbury which has yet to enter service. That is <strong>51<\/strong> which arrived along with <strong>53<\/strong> and is at an earlier stage of its commissioning. Further trams will be delivered from Spain in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_49257\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=49257\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49257\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49257\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49257\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/1.5337-aw-550x367.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-49257\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Looking all shiny and, 53 is in platform 2 at Wednesbury Parkway as it prepares to enter service for the first time. 37 is in the adjacent platform 3 having been terminated short.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_49258\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=49258\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49258\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49258\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49258\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/2.53-aw-550x367.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-49258\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">53 at Wolverhampton St George\u2019s.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_49259\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=49259\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49259\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49259\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49259\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/3.53service-aw-550x367.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-49259\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">And at Grand Central bound for Edgbaston Village. (Photographs x3 by Andy Walters, 24th April 2023)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_49260\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=49260\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49260\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49260\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49260\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4.53-mc-550x422.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4.53-mc-550x422.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4.53-mc-1024x785.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4.53-mc-768x589.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4.53-mc.jpg 1286w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-49260\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">People get off 53 at West Bromwich Central probably completely oblivious that it\u2019s the tram\u2019s first day in service! (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 24th April 2023)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the latest CAF Urbos100 to have been delivered for use on the West Midlands Metro has now entered service. 53 carried its first passengers on Monday 24th April having been used on daylight driver training for a few &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=49256\">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\/49256"}],"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=49256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49261,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49256\/revisions\/49261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}