West Midlands Metro

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 miles (23 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.

The tram system was launched on 30 May 1999 as Midland Metro, partly using the disused Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level Line. 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 now terminates at Edgbaston Village since 2022. At the other end of the line, an extension to Wolverhampton station was opened on 17 September 2023.

Construction of a new Line 2 & 3 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 delayed; it is currently expected to be completed at least to Dudley by 2025. A branch in Birmingham to Curzon Street – a planned High Speed 2 interchange – and on to Digbeth, is also under construction as of 2023. There are also proposals to extend the system further towards Solihull or Chelmsley Wood and Birmingham Airport.