Wmm urbos 3 trams move to worksop for temporary storage

On the evening of August 8, West Midlands Metro 17 awaits the final portion of its journey from Wednesbury to HNRC at Worksop in the abnormal load bay close to junction 28 on the M1 motorway at Alfreton. This was the first of five WMM trams to be moved to HNRC for temporary storage while work is carried out on expansion of the WMM depot at Wednesbury. Andy Coward

FIVE WEST Midlands Metro CAF-built Urbos 3 trams have been moved to Harry Needle Railroad Company’s facility at Worksop for temporary storage while work takes place on expanding WMM’s depot at Wednesbury.

First to be moved was Urbos 3 fleet pioneer 17, which left its home depot on the afternoon of August 8, arriving at Worksop the following day after being recessed overnight in a layby alongside junction 28 on the M1.

Work is currently underway by the Midland Metro Alliance on a number of extensions to the tramway, with additional capacity needed at Wednesbury depot to cope with the larger tram fleet required to serve the expanded network.

With WMM operator Midland Metro Ltd now having access to a large number of its new Urbos 100 fleet alongside the older Urbos 3 trams for services, the decision has been taken to move some of the trams to HNRC at Worksop for storage until work on the depot expansion is completed, at which point they will be returned.

The 21 Urbos 3s, numbered 17-37, are the second-gen