Managing Director of Nexus, Martin Kearney, said “To see that train arriving at our Gosforth depot was a moment of history for the Tyne and Wear Metro. Everyone is excited to get the testing and driver training process underway, so that we can put the new train into service on the network.”
The brand new trains, traveling from Switzerland, all the way to our Gosforth depot, proudly boast sophisticated, air conditioned, spacious and sleek new features, including charging points, the ability to walk all the way through the train and an automatic sliding step at each door, enabling seamless travel for wheelchair users as well as pushchairs and bicycles. Huge improvement to energy efficiency as well as a brand new £70m depot set to include sedum roofing, rainwater recycling, daylight capture and varying other environmentally friendly features. The trains are designed as part of a large consultation with over 23,000 responses and promise to be transformative for both customers and the workforce.
Those who got an early look at the trains have remarked on how spacious they are inside, as well as how welcome air-con, charging points and CCTV are - though most of the Metro passengers are anticipating one huge improvement - reliability. A quick look at Twitter on any weekday will reveal how desperate Northern commuters are for a better service - Nexus themselves have recently issued formal notices to Stadler to improve current services and help tackle the growing issues and the timetable slashes as a result of them, issues include (but are not limited to) fires, flooding, cable theft and overhead line collapse.
The new trains are expected to enter service in late 2023, with more trains arriving in stages - Nexus claim that as one arrives, an old train will be removed. The full fleet is expected to be in service by 2024/2025.
A playlist of information from nexus can be found here:
(Images from @TodaysRailways on Twitter)
