West Midlands Metro services have been suspended for 4 weeks initially.
See the latest service information and updates from West Midlands Metro, including planned works in the future.
westmidlandsmetro.com
Service suspended from 13 November until further notice!
We are sorry that there will be no Metro services from Saturday 13 November until further notice.
Earlier this year a repair programme was implemented to address cracks identified on several of our trams. As part of this work, it has become necessary for additional repairs to be carried out.
To ensure that we can continue to run a safe and reliable service, a decision has been made to remove all 21 trams from service until further notice.
Service was previously withdrawn 11 June over the same issue. A reduced service resumed on the 14th.
All West Midlands Metro trams have been halted and removed from service until at least Monday after a fault was identified.
www.expressandstar.com
Twenty-one trams were removed from service on Friday morning until further notice after the vehicle manufacturer identified cracks in the underframe structure at either end of the tram.
Sydney have withdrawn all 12 of theirs, for up to 18 months.
The severity of cracks in all 12 trams that operate on the line has forced the government to decommission the line for up to 18 months.
www.smh.com.au
CAF are having to fix 19 units in Besançon, after cracks were found in the bodies in 2017
CAF has agreed to conduct remedial work at its own cost on 19 23.6m-long three-section Urbos LRVs operated in the French city of Besançon.
www.railjournal.com
According to wikipedia, all 3 are the same issue, cracks in the bogie box area
en.wikipedia.org
A Norwegian operator withdrew all their CAF EMUs in June this year, after only 19 days in operation.
NORWEGIAN operator Flytoget has withdrawn its entire fleet of CAF Oaris EMUs following the discovery of a crack in the chassis of one of the trains.
www.railjournal.com
There's nearly 700 Urbos 3s out in the world, & ~10% are now out of service with cracking issues.
Are there likely to be more found, & how many more?
CAF are a sizeable manufacturer, but not very profitable, net income of €62 million (2014)
Dealing with these cracks, & presumably compensating operators, is going to be a big crack in their finances!