West Midlands Metro: Interurban tramway system built on the ghost of a mainline railway! 30/10/23 скачать в хорошем качестве

West Midlands Metro: Interurban tramway system built on the ghost of a mainline railway! 30/10/23

Here is video I took on a journey from Wolverhampton to Grand Central / New Street station on the West Midlands Metro on a very sunny day in Oct 2023. This standard gauge tramway first ran from Wolverhampton St George's to a spare platform at the rebuilt Birmingham Snow Hill railway station. Most of the route reused the old GWR Wolverhampton Low Level to Snow Hill mainline from Priestfield that had closed in 1972. This opened in 1999. There were bold plans for further lines, but financial reality meant that progress has been slow. By 2019, the line was diverted into a street running section through central Birmingham and then by 2023 on to Edgbaston. At the Wolverhampton end, the line was run through the streets to Wolverhampton station by 2023. This section is run on battery, and combined with the rebuilding of Wolverhampton railways station, has completely transformed the area. Currently, an extension from central Birmingham to Curzon St High Speed 2 station and Digbeth is being built. Additionally, the old railway from Wednesbury to Dudley is being turned into a tram line. This will eventually continue to Merry Hill and Brierly Hill. The original trams were Ansaldo Breda T-69s. AB products at this time were pretty terrible- they are related to the SL-95s used in Oslo and had similarities with the Manchester Metrolink T-68a trams. They lasted until 2015. They were replaced with CAF Urbos 3 trams, which are much better. These have been fitted with batteries, so that extensions can be built more cheaply, without overhead line. The metro is great line, diving off the streets of Wolverhampton and benefitting from the old mainline alignments. There is lots of greenery, and there are several sections where pedestrian walkways and parks have been built. Trams run at up to 70km/h (45mph)- you can see the speed gauge in the video. Things get really impressive when the Jewellery line joins, as this leads to a quadruple track section, as the heavy rail runs by the tramway. Index Points: 00:00:00 Tram no58 at Grand Central, Birmingham 00:00:30 Wolverhampton Station (new section using batteries) 00:01:57 Piper's Row 00:02:43 Battery section ends- rejoin branch from original St George's terminus 00:04:00 The Royal 00:07:26 Priestfield 00:09:01 The Crescent 00:10:04 Bilston Central 00:11:41 Loxdale 00:12:57 Bradley Lane 00:16:08 Wednesbury Parkway 00:17:25 Wednesbury Great Western St 00:18:18 Dudley extension under construction 00:19:21 Black Lake Tunnel 00:20:13 Black Lake 00:21:46 Dudley St Guns Village 00:23:19 Dartmouth St 00:24:13 Lodge Rd 00:25:56 West Bromwich Central 00:27:17 Trinity Way 00:28:32 Kenrick Park 00:30:07 Jewellery Line joins 00:30:32 The Hawthorns (baggie baggie boing boing) 00:32:04 Handsworth Booth St 00:32:41 Queen's head viaduct 00:33:42 Winson Green 00:35:23 Soho Benson Rd 00:37:16 Jewellery Quarter 00:38:02 Hockley Tunnels 00:38:59 St Paul's 00:40:17 St Chads- start of extension into Birmingham 00:42:40 Bull St 00:44:14 Junction for new Curzon St extension 00:45:28 Corporation St 00:46:55 Grand Central / New St