| West Midlands Metro services are finally set to resume after months of frustration for commuters.
Trams have been off the tracks since March - the third time in nine months they had to be suspended, causing huge embarrassment for transport chiefs in the region.
Bosses had been under pressure to ensure services would be up and running again in time for the Commonwealth Games. It's now been announced the Metro will run between Birmingham Bull Street and Wolverhampton St George's from Sunday, June 5.
But it won't be a full service and it's not known when it will be, with bosses only saying they are "confident" it will be back running as normal in time for the Games. An initial deadline of the end of May for the tram service to resume had to be pushed back due to not enough trams being available
West Midlands Metro said it was "looking to accelerate repairs to get more trams back out on our network as quickly and safely as possible to restore a full service".
Trams have not run between Birmingham and Wolverhampton since March 20 and the lack of a tram service for so many weeks, after previous issues, has been blasted as a shambles by critics.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street apologised when the service went down again. Bosses will hope the confidence of the public in the beleaguered tram system can be restored.
Midland Metro Limited said in a statement: "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 continued: "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." |
