Rail News – Early July 2025
Estimated reading time 2 minutes
The cost for a major expansion of a Midland Metro tram depot in Wednesbury has reportedly risen by close to £8m.
The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has agreed to raise the budget for the scheme at the Wednesbury depot, which was planned to increase tram services, by £7.65m. This will bring the total cost of the project closer to £77m.
The expansion will allow the facility to better accommodate the increased tram fleet, as well as adding engineering facilities and a new control room.
Two major East Midlands organisations have come out fighting against the Government’s decision to shelve the electrification of the Midland Main Line. East Midlands Councils (EMC) and Transport for the East Midlands (TfEM) have expressed “dismay” at the decision to pause indefinitely the next phase of electrification of the Midland Main Line (MML).
The announcement comes almost exactly 10 years after a previous Conservative Government also decided to “pause” the scheme.
The Department for Transport has now confirmed that “investment will instead be focused on other schemes during this Spending Review period” – although, say EMC and TfEM, none have been identified in the East Midlands, which already receives the lowest level of transport spending per head of any UK region or nation (just 56% of the UK average).
As a result, there will be no further enhancements to the region’s railway before the next General Election, they say.
