{"id":9314,"date":"2014-10-06T21:06:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T20:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9314"},"modified":"2014-10-06T21:06:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T20:06:57","slug":"farewell-to-midland-metro-t69-13-as-more-are-withdrawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9314","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to Midland Metro T69 13 as more are withdrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

13<\/strong> has become the second of Midland Metro\u2019s T69 fleet to depart Wednesbury Depot with several more examples expected to leave in the next couple of weeks (as many as six more have been suggested!) Allelys were once again called upon to move the vehicle \u2013 Allelys seem to be the company of choice to take your withdrawn second generation trams away! \u2013 with the lorry departing Birmingham shortly before 1400 on Monday 6th October.<\/p>\n

The T69 fleet of trams which were built by Ansaldo in Italy in 1998-99 were the original vehicles to operate on Midland Metro but almost from the very beginning they proved troublesome and it has been a very rare occasion when all 16 have been available for service at one time (for many years 07<\/strong> was out of service being used as a \u201cChristmas Tree\u201d). The decision was taken to replace them with the new Urbos 3 trams (which have recently entered service) and as a result the past few months have seen several T69s officially withdrawn from service.<\/p>\n

14<\/strong> became the first of the trams to depart when it was transferred to the UK Tram test fleet on 17th June but up until now the other 15 had stayed in Birmingham but this has now changed with 13<\/strong> following its sister to Long Marston, although it is not known whether this is to be second vehicle to join the UK Tram test fleet (it is anticipated that two T69s will be used for testing purposes alongside four Manchester Metrolink T68s) or has just gone there for storage.<\/p>\n

13<\/strong> is understood to have last run in passenger service on 28th August 2014 and since that date has been stored at the depot alongside fellow withdrawn vehicles 01<\/strong> and 02<\/strong> \u2013 both of which are expected to follow 13<\/strong> out of the depot this week.<\/p>\n

With the Urbos 3 trams starting to take over more duties on a daily basis (except for today!) two further T69s have also been withdrawn with 07<\/strong> taken out of use last week and 15<\/strong> following over the weekend. 07<\/strong> was last noted in service on 20th September and was then noted in the workshops at the start of the following week before it was moved alongside 01<\/strong> and 02<\/strong> in what seems to have become the withdrawn section of the depot yard. 07<\/strong> becomes the first of the Network West Midlands liveried trams to be withdrawn. 15<\/strong> has also been officially withdrawn and is now stabled alongside 03 in the depot yard. It is likely that 03<\/strong>, 07<\/strong> and 15<\/strong> will be leaving Birmingham within the next week as well.<\/p>\n

All this means that there are only nine T69s available for service (04<\/strong>, 05<\/strong>, 06<\/strong>, 08<\/strong>, 09<\/strong>, 10<\/strong>, 11<\/strong>, 12<\/strong>, 16<\/strong>) and surprisingly on Monday 6th October all of these were in service at some point with just two (and later three) Urbos 3s enjoying the wet and windy weather as Autumn well and truly arrived in the UK.<\/p>\n

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13 on 20th May 2014 at Jewellery Quarter before withdrawal.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Onto 6th October and 13 departs Wednesbury.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Note that the Anthony Nolan nameplates have been removed from the tram.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It would appear that 13 is about to get a ticket as it reverses out of the depot!<\/p><\/div>\n

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One last view of 13 in the West Midlands.<\/p><\/div>\n

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07 alongside 24 at Jewellery Quarter on 18th September, two days before withdrawal.<\/p><\/div>\n

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07 alongside fellow withdrawn tram 01 on 3rd October at the depot. (All Photos: Andy Walters)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 has become the second of Midland Metro\u2019s T69 fleet to depart Wednesbury Depot with several more examples expected to leave in the next couple of weeks (as many as six more have been suggested!) Allelys were once again called … Continue reading →<\/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\/9314"}],"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=9314"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9325,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9314\/revisions\/9325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}