Incident on the Midland Metro today

[sprinterguy]

Those T-69 trams really are hopeless, this was reported at 2:30pm today:

A pantograph has come off one tram near the Jewellery Quarter and smashed through the windscreen of the Tram. This has caused injuries to the driver and 5 passengers.

And from the National Express West Midlands website:

Service Disruption - Wednesday 13:50
Route 79.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 at 13:50

Midland Metro are currently only operating a service between Wednesbury Parkway and Soho, Benson Road.
There is no service between Soho Benson Road - Birmingham Snow Hill.

Metro tickets and passes will be accepted on the National Express West Midlands service 79 buses.

Please note that due to planned engineering work there is also still no service between Wednesbury Parkway and Wolverhampton St George's

 

[SS4]

Just when the Wolves end is closed for engineering works too.

 

[sprinterguy]

Yep (Found out about the Wolves engineering works the hard way on Monday night: That’ll teach me not to hobnob with fellow gig goers at the bar in the Wolves Civic!), neither end of the Midland Metro is in use at the moment because of this, just a stretch in the middle with West Brom at the centre.

 

[Seacook]

It seems a bit odd to accept tickets on just the 79 bus when the NatEx 74 follows the same route between West Bromwich and Birmingham, unless it's simply an oversight.

 

[SS4]

It seems a bit odd to accept tickets on just the 79 bus when the NatEx 74 follows the same route between West Bromwich and Birmingham, unless it's simply an oversight.

Especially since those buses are full at the best of times. I wonder if they've got staff at Upper Bull St as crowd management like they did before (I saw it while I was waiting for a 116 over the road, there were people from the door of Black's to the next bus stop along at full depth0

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Is tram 02 still a Christmas Tree? It's the only one I haven't photographed...

 

[sprinterguy]

There is one tram in use as a Christmas tree that is permanently sat outside the back of the depot at Wednesbury, adjacent to the tram stop. I think that it’s 01, but I’m not really sure.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

They told me was 02 when I asked why it never appeared because I need it for a picture.

It does say 01 in the combined volume, but I think that's an error...

 

[Dreadnought]

They told me was 02 when I asked why it never appeared because I need it for a picture.

It does say 01 in the combined volume, but I think that's an error...

01 is definitely the one stored at the depot. It was my last MM tram for sight and I had to take a trip past the depot to see it!!

 

[trains2064]

I was shocked to see the state of Tramcar 13 when I past Jewellery Quarter Station on a train at about 15.15.

I hpe everyone is not 2 badly injured and I think I speak for everyone that our thoughts have to with everyone who was on the tram.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

01 is definitely the one stored at the depot. It was my last MM tram for sight and I had to take a trip past the depot to see it!!

Maybe they're both out of traffic then? I only asked about 02 when I contacted them.

 

[WatcherZero]

The christmas tree unit did at some point switchover, not sure when or why perhaps cannablising parts from one to return the other to service..

 

[MetroDriver]

I've just joined but able to speak from an intimate knowledge as I work at Midland Metro....
Don't expect me to provide detailed information on things that are of a sensitive nature at any time, but I can at least try and help if I can?

Regarding the incident - yes Tram 13 is severely damaged (not seen anything quite like it in 11 years to be honest, and to be honest I was astounded that no more serious injuries etc resulted when seeing the damage close up. To put the record a bit straighter, the driver was not injured, 6 passengers were though. The damage is both external and internal, and could have been so much worse.

As a result of the initial incident and the subsequent damage to BOTH overhead lines between Soho Benson Rd and Jewellery Quarter, there has been a cut-back service in operation since, but as of 20:00 tonight the line has been again closed in that area to allow repairs to be attempted:
http://nxbus.co.uk/the-metro/information/service-alerts

As for the Xmas Tree trams, well here's how it is:

Tram 07 used to be the 'dead' one following a severe accident back in 2000. Eventually enough new parts were available to rebuild it, and it's been back in service for a few years. At that time, Tram 01 was in urgent need of unobtainable parts, so it was withdrawn to act as a spares source (this has to happen in order to keep the 16 tram fleet running). Tram 02 fell out of service due to technical issues which are also awaiting unobtainable parts, so it sits looking forlorn inside the workshop shed now. Neither have been robbed to the same extent as Tram 07 used to be, and there was hope that at least one of them would be rebuilt. With the planned replacement of the fleet due once a new builder has been contracted and information released, it looks likely that both 01 and 02 will stay out of use now though

 

[WatcherZero]

Dont they want to sell all the T69 and move over exclusivley to a new model? Not sure if anyone would want to buy them based on their reliability and condition though Metrolink's T68 may have enough common parts to be interested in the spares inventory.

 

[MetroDriver]

To be quite honest, I don't know if anyone knows the future for the T69 fleet? As they were all hand-built and vary in so many ways - it would be a daunting prospect for anyone to take on the fleet for further use. Our engineers do a stirling job in keeping them going right now, as ways have been found to obtain new build parts or local repairs. In the early days everything had to come out of Italy as part of the contractual obligations, and that caused more problems than you can imagine....lol.
We're just looking forward to finding out where and who the new fleet is coming from - anything has to be better value than the current stock.

 

[sprinterguy]

I haven't heard any rumours of where the T-69s will be destined for once they're replaced, although the Isle of Wight has been jokingly mentioned around the office more than once

To add to MetroDrivers' post, there will be a completely new fleet of trams for the New Street extension, to cater for increased capacity, as given the "individual" nature of each of the T-69s and the fact that they're now an obsolete design means they can't just have sections added to them. They would also unsuitable for some of the gradients on the extension.

 

[BrummyBoy]

hopefully the new replacements arent as loud as the T-69s