West Midlands Metro bosses 'very confident' services will be back before Commonwealth Games
Tram bosses are ‘very confident’ the tram system will be back up and running in time for the Commonwealth Games despite concerns.
It emerged Government ministers are in talks with West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, seeking reassurances the West Midlands Metro will be back on track when the games begin on July 28.
Services were withdrawn on March 19 after yet more cracks were found in the trams - the third time in nine months that such a discovery has led to the system being shut down. The service is currently suspended until further notice.
And, while there are no guarantees, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) said they were optimistic services will be resumed, with a clearer picture on the timescales expected in the “next week or so”.
Passengers were left frustrated when services were suspended earlier this month when cracks appeared in the door frames of the older fleet of trams.
Talks were held earlier this week between senior executives from TfWM and Spanish based manufacturer CAF to discuss the repair programme.
CAF has accepted the problem is the result of a design fault and engineers from Spain and other parts of the world are currently in England working on the 21 affected trams and training British workers up on how to carry out repairs.
A TfWM spokesperson said: “We are focused on working with CAF to return a safe, reliable service as soon as possible and are very confident that we’ll have the trams up and running for the Commonwealth Games.
“As previously stated we expect the panel replacement works to take a number of weeks and expect to be in a position to provide a clearer indication of timescales in the next week or so.”
The latest suspension is the third time in just nine months services have faced such disruption.
Trudy Harrison, a Minister in the Department for Transport, said the Government said: “The Department was made aware of the West Midland Metro closure on 19 March 2022.
“Since then we have been engaging with officials from the Combined Authority to understand the evolving operational issues.
“We have received assurances that ticket acceptance on alternate transport modes is in place for Birmingham residents.
“We continue to monitor the situation, communicating with officials from the region as well as industry safety experts, to understand its potential impact to the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and to understand when services can be resumed.”
TfWM said they would need between 12 to 15 trams ready for passengers to be able to provide a ‘reasonable service’.
