The first of the new £40m Midland Metro fleet enters service

THE first of a £40m fleet of new Midland Metro trams begins running between Wolverhampton and Birmingham today.

The fleet, which will eventually comprise 21 of the Spanish-built vehicles, is made up of Urbos 3 vehicles, which are made by CAF of Zaragoza.

The new trams are a third bigger than the Metro’s outgoing trams and each is capable of carrying around 210 passengers compared to 156 on the former T69 model.

This, together with a frequency of 10 trams an hour, will increase overall capacity on the line by 40%, easing the overcrowding that sometimes occurs during peak times.

The new trams have undergone through testing and each driver has also undergone new training so they can helm the new vehicles, which are running on the line between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton

They will eventually be deployed on the Metro extension from Snow Hill to New Street now being constructed through Birmingham city centre which, when completed in 2015, will see trams return to the city’s streets for the first time in more than 60 years.

The £128m extension project is jointly managed by Centro, the Black Country councils and Birmingham City Council. It is expected to create more than 1,300 new jobs and boost the regional economy by more than £50m a year once operational.

It is also expected to increase the number of passengers using the Metro each year from five to eight million.

At least one new tram is arriving each month at the Midland Metro depot in Wednesbury from CAF’s factory in Zaragoza. The trams will then undergo extensive testing and commissioning before they can be put into service.
 

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