Trams will run to Dudley for the first time in 96 years in June when testing begins

Trams will run to Dudley for the first time in 96 years when testing commences on the new £649 million West Midlands Metro line in June.

A spokesman for Transport for West Midlands said construction teams had now left the six-mile route, and that inspection and testing work had already begun.

The first trams were expected to run early in June, ahead of a much-delayed opening date of August 28.

The six-mile route, which will largely follow the course of the former railway line, is the biggest extension to the West Midland tram network since the original Wolverhampton-Birmingham line opened in May 1999.

It will link up with the original tram line at a new junction in Wednesbury, passing through Dudley Port railway station and Tipton before terminating just past Flood Street.

It will eventually continue to the Merry Hill shopping centre.

The last trams into Dudley -including a service from Wednesbury - ran on March 1, 1930 before they were replaced with Midland Red bus routes.

Work started on the line, which was originally to have run to Brierley Hill town centre, in February 2020, with the scheme due to have been completed in its entirety by the end of 2023.

Delays caused by the coronavirus lockdown saw the completion date rescheduled for summer 2024. But in July that year, the Express & Star revealed that costs had ballooned to £550 million, prompting leaders of the West Midlands Combined Authority to mothball the Dudley-Brierley Hill stretch of the line until further funding could be found.

In June 2023 it was announced the total cost of the scheme had risen to £649 million - taking it 45 per cent over budget, although the decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 released funding to eventually extend the line as far as the Merry Hill shopping centre.

In July 2024 it was announced that the opening of the Wednesbury-Dudley line opening of the Wednesbury-Dudley line would be put back to autumn 2025.

At the start of October, a frustrated Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Council, told the Express & Star he did not expect the tram to be open to the public until after Christmas, and at the start of this year an opening date of August 28 was confirmed.