The West Midlands Metro is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands, England. The network has 33 stops with a total of 14.9 miles (24.0 km) of track; it currently consists of a single route, Line 1, which operates between the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton via the towns of Bilston, West Bromwich and Wednesbury, on a mixture of former railway lines and urban on-street running. The system is owned by the public body Transport for West Midlands, and operated by Midland Metro Limited, a company wholly owned by the West Midlands Combined Authority.[3][4]
During August 1995, a 25-year contract for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of Line 1 was awarded to the Altram consortium; construction commenced three months later. It was launched on 30 May 1999 as Midland Metro, partly using the disused Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level Line. During 2006, Ansaldo and John Laing Group both withdrew from the consortium, thus day-to-day operation of the Metro was taken over by the remaining partner, National Express. In October 2018, the National Express concession ended and the system was taken over by Transport for West Midlands, the transport arm of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The line originally terminated at Birmingham Snow Hill station at the edge of the city centre, but following an extension opened in December 2015 it now serves the central core of Birmingham, including the principal regional mainline station, Birmingham New Street. Following further extensions the line has terminated at Edgbaston Village since 2022. At the other end of the line, an extension to Wolverhampton station was opened on 17 September 2023.[5][6] The Metro was originally operated by a fleet of 16 AnsaldoBreda T-69 trams; these were replaced during the 2010s by a newer fleet of 42 CAF Urbos 3.
Construction of a new branch line from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill was approved in March 2019, started in February 2020 and was intended to be completed for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but has been severely delayed; it is currently scheduled to be completed at least to Dudley by 2025.[7] An additional branch line running to Birmingham's Eastside via Curzon Street – the region's planned High Speed 2 terminus – and terminating at Digbeth is also under construction as of 2024.[8][9] There are also proposals to expand this branch further towards Chelmsley Wood (Solihull) and out to Birmingham Airport.[10]
- ^ "Light rail and tram statistics, England: year ending March 2024". Department for Transport. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
- ^ "Route kilometres open for passenger traffic on light rail and trams and undergrounds by system: Great Britain - annual from 1995/96". UK Government Department for Transport. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
- ^ "TfWM to take direct control of Midland Metro services". Transport for West Midlands. 22 March 2017.
- ^ "Transport for West Midlands Annual Plan 2018-19" (PDF). West Midlands Combined Authority. 15 April 2018.
- ^ Smith, Adam (28 October 2022). "'Catastrophe for Wolverhampton' as Metro extension is delayed again until spring 2023". Express and Star. Wolverhampton. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
- ^ "Midland Metro Alliance to manage tramway expansion projects". Railway Gazette International. 29 June 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
indoubtwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "'Significant step forward' for Birmingham Metro tram extension". BBC News. 26 November 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ Young, Graham (14 January 2023). "Eastside Metro trams to take four more years to reach Digbeth via HS2". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ "£450m funding green light for Midland Metro extension". Construction Enquirer. Retrieved 19 June 2019.