Limited metro services to resume this weekend

Limited West Midlands Metro services are to resume on Sunday 5 June, following repair works.

With the Commonwealth Games approaching in July, officials says they are “confident” that a fully operational fleet will be ready.

Cracks were found in the bodywork of trams in November which put them out of service until February.

Services ceased again in March due to further cracks resulting in CAF, the manufacturer, replacing the faulty panels rather than repairing them, to ensure the service will be reliable going forward.

It is thought around 12 to 14 trams will run from 5 June between Birmingham and Wolverhampton with the fleet increasing as each vehicle is fixed and available.

The first services to run will do so without being wrapped in branding around the doors in order to not delay the service any further.

West Midlands Metro said it was working with CAF to recruit more engineers to carry out specialist repair work and “with this acceleration we remain very confident that a full service will be in operation in good time ahead of this summer’s Commonwealth Games”.

“We would once again like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience the suspension of service has caused”.