West Midlands Metro announces when it will reopen after being closed for two months
West Midlands Metro services will resume between Wolverhampton and Birmingham in early June after they were suspended two months ago, it has been announced.
The service – which has been out of action since March 19 after more cracks were found in the trams – is now set to return from the week commencing Sunday, June 5.
It comes despite an initial deadline of the end of May for the tram service to resume which has been pushed back due to not enough trams being available, bosses said.
Metro chiefs also said some of the trams may not be fully wrapped in blue vinyl around the doors due to the haste in re-instating them, but this will not impact on safety.
And the trams will not be going along the full route as of yet, however, with the reinstated trams only running between Wolverhampton St George's and Birmingham Bull Street.
It is the hope all of the trams will be back in service in "good time" and ahead of the Commonwealth Games as they look to "accelerate" repairs to the current metro fleet.
A statement from Midland Metro Limited, operator of the West Midlands Metro, said: "We can confirm that West Midlands Metro services will resume in the week beginning Sunday June 5, with trams running between Wolverhampton St George’s and Birmingham Bull Street.
"This return to service has been enabled by the replacement of tram body panels progressing to schedule. We are now looking to accelerate repairs to get more trams back out on our network as quickly and safely as possible to restore a full service.
"We are working with CAF as the manufacturer to recruit more engineers to carry out the specialist repair work as well as moving trams off-site to a third-party facility – with the first of these having left the Wednesbury depot this week.
"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."
The statement added: "We of course share passengers’ frustrations that the original timescale provided by CAF to restore a service next week has not been met. Despite assurances that enough trams would be available, they have now informed us that this is now not possible until the following week due to further snagging work required before the trams meet the quality standards required for acceptance into service.
"So as not to delay the reinstatement of service any further than absolutely necessary, once this essential snagging work has been carried out some trams will be running without being fully wrapped in blue vinyl branding around the doors. This will not impact their safety or performance.
"We would once again like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience the suspension of service has caused. Further updates will be issued in due course."
The service was suspended on March 19 after cracks were discovered in the bodywork – the third time in the space of a year – which sparked fury from people in the region.
The issue first reared its head on June 11 last year when all 21 trams were suddenly withdrawn due to cracks in the under-frame structure of the vehicles.
Four days later and a reduced service was started after inspections were completed and the affected trams were repaired, with many thinking the issue was sorted.
However, five months later almost to the day, all of the West Midlands Metro trams were pulled when more cracks were found again – requiring more repairs.
And this time the closure was much longer, initially announced as being for at least four weeks, with Metro chiefs coming under fire in the run-up to Christmas – with services starting up again on December 15, but only between Wolverhampton St George's and Bull Street in Birmingham.
Bosses had hoped the full service would be up and running by the end of January, but it wasn't until February 12, more than three months after services were withdrawn, that the full service running all the way to Birmingham city centre.
And then a month later – on March 19 – the vehicles were pulled again due to "operational reasons" with chiefs later confirming cracks had been found in the bodywork of a number of trams – and setting a target of the end of May for when the trams would return.
