When it launched back in 1980, the Tyne and Wear Metro – an underground and overground network that runs through Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland – was one of the first electric urban railways in the world. And for over 40 years the network has used the same fleet of trains: safe to say, it’s about time it got an upgrade.
And now a swanky new fleet of 46 trains is finally on its way to the Tyne and Wear Metro. The £362 million trains were made in Switzerland and, according to Nexus Tyne and Wear, the new fleet will ‘transform the customer experience in terms of comfort, quality and reliability as well as setting high standards of accessibility’.
The trains were initially due arrive from summer 2023 but they’ve been held up by a mixture of things, including issues with driver training, inflation and the war in Ukraine. Their roll-out was pushed back to January this year but they were hit by delays once again.
Now, bosses hope that the trains can start being rolled out at the end of this year – but they still haven’t committed to an official date. In January, Michael Richardson, the head of fleet and depot programme at Nexus, said: ‘We’ve recently identified that further tests need to be conducted on the traction of the train, specifically when the rail conditions are unexpectedly poor.
‘[Manufacturer] Stadler and Nexus are currently working through these now to ensure that trains perform to a high standard for the benefit of passengers.
‘We are still aiming to have the first train in service for customers in 2024 and we will have more of an exact timescale once this work is completed.’
Here are some more pictures of the insides of the new trains.
Pretty swish, eh?
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