Everything’s on the line in scramble to sort out trams
We are working closely with officials from the region andWest Midlands Metro to monitor the situation and fully understand issues Government minister Trudy Harrison
GOVERNMENT ministers are in talks with West Midlands Mayor Andy Street about the failure of the West Midlands Metro.
And they are looking for reassurances that the closure of the region’s light rail network won’t cause problems when the Birmingham Commonwealth Games begin on July 28.
Trudy Harrison, a minister in the Department for Transport, said the Government was receiving updates from the West Midlands Combined Authority, which runs the Metro and is chaired by the mayor.
She said: "The Department was made aware of the West Midland Metro closure on March 19. 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.”
Bosses at the West Midlands Combined Authority are confident that services will be back in action in good time for the Games. They hope to provide a firm date soon, possibly next week, but have said they expect the closure to last a number of weeks (not months) and services could resume sooner. It’s likely that the re-opening of the Metro will take place in stages, with services from Wolverhampton to Broad Street first in line to re-open.
They will certainly be hoping nothing else goes wrong, as the Metro is set to play a vital role in ensuring the region’s transport network can cope with the one million spectators who are expected to attend Commonwealth Games events.
A transport plan drawn up by the Combined Authority states: “We will introduce additional temporary
services to alleviate pressure on the network and provide for extra demand, whilst also introducing temporary measures to make efficient use of the network and to facilitate a faster and more efficient transition to the venues.
“Our Metro services will be extended at peak times and we will work with bus and train operators to understand the potential for providing extra temporary capacity and connectivity.
“Such measures will help ensure that supply meets demand and that issues such as overcrowding, and journey delays are averted.”
The cracked trains were provided
by Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, usually known as CAF, at a cost of £40 million, and began operation in the region in 2013. CAF engineers are in the region training up British workers in order to speed up the repair programme, and Andy Street this week met CAF at the Metro’s depot in Wednesbury.
But one Birmingham MP has suggested CAF should be barred from selling more light rail trains in the UK. Birmingham Selly Oak MP Steve McCabe asked transport ministers whether they have “made an assessment of the potential merits of blocking the future award of manufacturing contracts to CAF in the context of their tram models’ recurrent faults in the West Midlands and across Europe.”
Ms Harrison, responding for the Government, didn’t rule the idea out. She said: “We are working closely with officials from the region and West Midland Metro to monitor the situation, and fully understand the issues.”
The problem does appear to lie with the trains, because as Mr McCabe suggested, they have also failed in other parts of the world where they have been in use.
As the Birmingham Post has reported, cracks were discovered in
Urbos trains in the French city of Besançon in 2017. CAF trains were reported to be “falling apart” in Belgrade, Serbia, after screws burst. And Sydney, Australia, was forced to suspend its light rail system after cracks were found on Urbos trains there.
And there are other train manufacturers to consider. For example, the Tyne and Wear Metro is buying trains from swiss company Stadler. There’s even the option of buying light rail trains made right here in the UK by Hitachi (a Japanese-owned business, but they have a factory building trains in Durham).
Meanwhile, there are calls for a full House of Commons debate where the problems on the West Midlands
Metro can be analysed in more detail.
Speaking in Parliament, Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western asked: “For the third time in the last nine months, the trams operated by West Midlands Metro have been suspended, this time indefinitely.
“Tens of thousands of people across the region depend on those trams, including my constituents who commute to Birmingham and beyond. It seems there have been issues with the quality of the trams purchased, and there is also a colossal cost.
“Can we have a debate about the situation, including the role of the West Midlands Combined Authority?”
Cabinet Minister Mark Spencer promised to take the issue directly to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. He said: “I am aware of the challenges that the tram system in the West Midlands has faced. I will draw the issue to the attention of the Secretary of State for Transport on his behalf and will make sure he gets an answer in due course.”