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CAF Urbos (West Midlands Metro)
West Midlands Metro's whole fleet: low-floor trams built by CAF in Spain, 108 ft (33 m) long in five sections. Twenty-one Urbos 3s (2013-15) replaced the T-69s, and 21 more, the 'Urbos 100s', came in 2021-23 for the extensions. Every one carries batteries for the wire-free streets of Birmingham city centre.
Scale
108 ft (32.966 m) long
CAF Urbos (West Midlands Metro) · schematic drawing GB Trains · gbtrains.uk/stock/wm-urbos/ · CC BY 4.0
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Liveries 1
West Midlands MetroWest Midlands MetroBright blue with a silver sweep round the cab, black doors with white window surrounds; from photographs of 54, 51 and a cab section (2025)Shown aboveFormer liveries 1
Original silver liveryRan as West Midlands MetroFormer2014 to about 2019Not drawn yet
- Type
- Tram, five sections, low floor
- Builder
- CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), Spain
- Built
- 2013–2023
- In service
- since 2014
- Lines
- West Midlands Metro
- Formation
- Five sections, 108 ft (32.97 m) over the body, double-ended: a cab section at each end over a motor bogie, a short centre section over a trailer bogie, and a suspended section between them on each side; two double doors on each suspended section and a single door on each cab section
- Trains in fleet
- 42
- Top speed
- 43 mph (70 km/h)
- Power
- 750 V DC overhead, and on-board batteries for the sections built without wires; eight motors, one for each wheel of the two motor bogies · how it works
- Bogies
- CAF Urbos bogies, two motor and a trailer, behind the skirts but for the bottoms of the wheels (West Midlands Metro)
- Train length
- 108 ft (32.966 m)
- Car height
- 11 ft 2 in (3.405 m)
- Car width
- 8 ft 8 in (2.65 m)
- Profile
- tram
- Seats per train
- 54
- Total capacity
- 54 seats and 156 standing, 210 in all (Rail Engineer, 2013); British Trams Online gives 52 seats
- Status
- In service: 42 trams, 17-37 (Urbos 3) and 38-58 (Urbos 100), in the blue livery but for three in adverts or a special livery (British Trams Online, 10 October 2026). Several Urbos 3s have been away for body panel repairs or stored at Worksop since 2023. An option on 29 more trams was signed in 2019 (WMCA); none has been ordered as far as a checked source shows.
Before this train
The Urbos 3s replaced the 16 T-69s the line opened with: the first entered service in 2014 and the last T-69 ran on 14 August 2015.
Now CAF Urbos (West Midlands Metro) since 2014 · 108 ft (33.0 m) · 5 sections · 54 seats
Before T-69 (Ansaldo) 1999–2015
No drawing yet: no dimensioned source found
Car types
| Code | Car | Length | Doors per side |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | Sections C1 and C2: a cab, over a motor bogie | 24 ft 7 in7.488 m | |
| S | Sections S1 and S2: suspended between a cab section and the centre section, a double door at each end | 22 ft 2 in6.745 m | |
| R | Section R: the centre section, over the trailer bogie, with the pantograph | 14 ft 9 in4.50 m |
Sources
How we source figures → · Spotted a mistake? Tell us → (opens in a new tab)
Show the 15 sources from Wikimedia Commons, British Trams Online, Department for Transport and 5 more
- Schematic of the trams: Freedom of Information reply, case 05617, with the attachment 'Urbos3 Drawing.pdf' Midland Metro Limited (via WhatDoTheyKnow), 23 April 2021the dimensioned side elevation, plan and front view: length, sections, bellows, bogie centres, wheelbases, doors, width, heights; the drawing's source
- CAF trams for Midland Metro Expansion Project Rail Engineer, 3 May 2013five sections, C1, R and C2 on bogies and S1 and S2 suspended; motor bogies under C1 and C2, the trailer under R; 108 ft (33 m); 8 ft 8 in (2.65 m); low floor 1 ft 2 in (350 mm); 70 km/h (43 mph); 54 seated and 156 standing
- Gearboxes solutions (CAF Mobility product brochure) CAF Mobility, accessed 8 October 2026, pp. 20-21gearboxes FBD-361-5.44-2 and -3, reference project Birmingham: 1 ft 11 in (590 mm) wheels new, 1 ft 8 in (510 mm) worn; 70 kW; 70 km/h (43 mph)
- West Midlands Metro fleet list British Trams Online, updated 10 October 2026numbers 17-37 and 38-58; built 2013-15 and 2021-23 by CAF, Zaragoza; delivery and service dates; batteries; liveries and status in October 2026
- West Midlands Metro: advert liveries British Trams Online, accessed 12 October 2026the original white and silver livery and the change to the blue one from 2019; the adverts carried
- West Midlands Metro orders 21 new trams for rapidly expanding network West Midlands Combined Authority, 7 October 2019the second order: 21 Urbos trams with batteries, GBP 83.5 million, October 2019, an option on 29 more; batteries fitted to the existing fleet
- 21 more Urbos trams for West Midlands Metro British Trams Online, 8 October 2019the fleet doubling to 42; the second batch built in Spain
- West Midlands Metro rolling stock Wikipediabuilt at Zaragoza; 56 t; motor maker; the blue livery from July 2018 (cross-check only)
- 'Ozzy Tram 1 - 54718753914.jpg' (photograph: the cab section of a tram named Ozzy Osbourne, near side-on; CC BY 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (ahisgett), 13 August 2025the drawing: the cab section near side-on: the sweep, the door leaves, the skirt's foot, the wheel under it, the cab dome; colours
- 'CAF Urbos 3 Tram - 54798628382.jpg' (photograph: 54 near side-on, long lens; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Samson Ng), 27 July 2025the drawing: the whole tram, the folded pantograph, the roof covers, the bellows; colours
- '51 CAF Urbos 3 tram Wolverhampton 081025.jpg' (photograph: 51 three-quarter at Wolverhampton Station; CC BY 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Steve Knight), 10 October 2025the drawing: an Urbos 100 laid out as the Urbos 3 drawing; colours
- '43, Corporation Street, Birmingham, May 2nd 2024.jpg' (photograph: 43 three-quarter from the front; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Southsea_Matt), 2 May 2024the drawing: the front, no coupler showing
- 'Midlands Metro Tram 31 - 2019-04-04.jpg' (photograph: 31 three-quarter, pantograph raised; public domain) Wikimedia Commons (Voice of Clam), 4 April 2019the drawing: the pantograph's end of the centre section
- The Highway Code: road works, level crossings and tramways (rules 288 to 307), rule 307 Department for Transport (GOV.UK), accessed 10 October 2026, p. rule 307the "In operation" drawing's contact wire: 19 ft 0 in (5.8 m), the normal height of tramway wires over a carriageway
- The Highway Code: road works, level crossings and tramways (rules 288 to 307), rule 307 Department for Transport (GOV.UK), accessed 10 October 2026, p. rule 307the contact wire in the In operation drawing: 19 ft 0 in (5.8 m) above rail, the normal height of tramway wires over a carriageway
unverified
- Built at Zaragoza (British Trams Online, Wikipedia); Rail Engineer says only Spain
- Seats: 54 (Rail Engineer, 2013; Wikipedia) or 52 (British Trams Online)
- Motors: 8 x 80 kW (British Trams Online) or 8 x 70 kW (CAF's gearbox brochure's motor-gearbox rating; Wikipedia names Traktionssysteme Austria 70 kW motors)
- The Urbos 100s (38-58) are taken to share the Urbos 3's dimensions: no source gives theirs; 51's photograph (2025) shows the same layout
- Height: the drawing's 11 ft 2 in (3,405 mm) is read as the cab dome's height and 12 ft 1 in (3,675 mm) as the height over the folded pantograph (the drawing doesn't say which is which; Wikipedia gives 11 ft 2 in (3.4 m))
- The skirt's foot (85 mm) and the door thresholds (180 mm) are measured on one near side-on photograph (about 15 mm a pixel's reading error, its scale from the drawing's door); the drawing has 210-280 mm and 300 mm. The bogie skirt panels' tops (1 ft 5 in (440 mm)) are the photograph's too
- The pantograph's end of R: the drawing's two side views disagree; the first is followed, and 31's photograph (2019) agrees that it rises from R's end next to an S section
- The cab dome and fairing: the photograph shows the dome flat at about 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) to 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m) behind the nose and the fairing rising behind it; the drawing draws one slope from 6 ft 7 in to 8 ft 2 in (2.0 to 2.5 m)
- The cab (wmf2): the sweep, the front and the glass follow the 2021 drawing. On the rectified 2025 photograph the sweep's rear arc agrees with it to about 30 mm, but the lower band reads up to about 150 mm higher and further back, and the pillar about 110 mm further back; the cab side curves in towards the front, so part of that is perspective. The amber side lamps (photograph: 2 ft 9 in to 2 ft 11 in (834-892 mm)) stand about 130 mm lower than the drawing's dots, and the glass's foot (photograph 4 ft 0 in (1,225 mm)) and the waist seam (level on the photograph) differ from the drawing's lines (4 ft 0 in to 4 ft 6 in (1.22-1.36 m), rising towards the door)
- Original silver livery: the colours: white and silver (British Trams Online) or silver and magenta (the metros study, WMF6)
- The years of the former liveries come from Wikipedia's class article and the other sources listed, and haven't been checked against a second source.
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