THE first of a new fleet of metro trains entered service with Nexus which operates the Tyne and Wear metro serving Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northeast England.

Stadler is supplying 46 five-car articulated metro trains to Nexus as part of a £362m project which includes building a new depot. Two thirds of the order is now complete, and 13 trains have been delivered, with 25 to follow in the new year.

The new trains have lateral seating, mobile phone charging points, climate control, digital CCTV cameras, battery technology, and an automatic sliding step at each set of doors to allow seamless boarding.

“We are now witnessing the first steps towards making Metro, once again, a world-class system the whole region can be proud of,” says northeast mayor, Ms Kim McGuinness. “I put a convenient, comfortable and above all reliable metro at the heart of my vision for the future of public transport in northeast England, so that when we bring buses back under control we can create the good value integrated network people are crying out for.”

Disruption

Due to the closure of a road viaduct which crosses the metro tunnels in Gateshead, on the south bank of the River Tyne, no trains are running between Monument and Central Station in Newcastle, Gateshead and Heworth.

Nexus is operating a 24-minute frequency between Heworth, Sunderland and South Hylton, and Heworth and South Shields south of the Tyne. North of the Tyne, trains are running every 15 minutes between Monument and Newcastle Airport, and Monument, Tynemouth and St James in the city centre.

Engineers hope to carry out repairs to the flyover early in 2025, which would allow metro trains to start running again. However, the trains operating south of the Tyne cannot access the depot which is on the north side of the river, so it is uncertain how long the trains can continue to operate without maintenance.

“We are working closely with our partners at Stadler to see whether we can deliver some basic repairs, but this, combined with the colder weather, means there is a strong possibility that we will be unable to sustain metro services south of the River Tyne for the period of the tunnels being closed,” says Ms Cathy Massarella, managing director of Nexus. 

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