In the absence of volume production to reduce costs, the City Class is based on using mass-produced components off the shelf (COTS), where there is a variety of suppliers and compatibility of equipment to offer operators a variety of options for economic long term maintenance.
After this rebuild, it was operated 5 days a week, 8 hours per day between September and December 2005 on the Birkenhead tramway, during which its performance was monitored, and a profile of reliability established.