Soho TMD is a railway
traction maintenance depot situated in
Smethwick
Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...
,
West Midlands, England. It is located in Smethwick's industrial area of
Soho
SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
on the boundary with Birmingham, its depot code is SO. The depot is approximately west of
Birmingham New Street station. The Depot serves the
Cross-City Line.
Operations
Soho was purpose built as a depot for maintaining the former West Midlands based
EMU
The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...
fleet.
Soho is operated by
West Midlands Trains having been transferred over from the former
London Midland
London Midland was a train operating company in England which operated the West Midlands franchise between 11 November 2007 and 10 December 2017. It was owned by the British transport group Govia.
London Midland was created as a result of Gov ...
franchise in 2017. Before that it was operated by
Central Trains until 11 November 2007.
It is the home depot for WMT's Class 730/0 EMU fleet, where most maintenance of the units takes place, it is also used to stable EMUs.
References
Sources
*{{cite book, title=British Rail Depot Directory, year=1987, first1=Neil, last1=Webster, first2=Robert, last2=Greengrass, first3=Simon, last3=Greaves, publisher=Metro Enterprises Ltd., isbn=9780947773076, oclc=20420397
Railway depots in England
Rail transport in Birmingham, West Midlands