'Ariana Grinder' makes her debut on Metro
The Metro’s newest rail maintenance vehicle has been named after music megastar Ariana Grande.
The Grammy award-winning singer has millions of fans across the globe and now her lesser-known namesake – the Metro rail grinder – is spearheading track engineering on the Metro system.
The maintenance vehicle has been christened ‘Ariana Grinder’ and is being deployed to keep Metro’s 77km of track in top condition.
The rail line’s operator, Nexus, ran a competition with its workforce to come up with a name.
Known as a rail grinder, it is a road and rail going vehicle (RRV) and is used to keep the Metro rails in good enough condition to carry trains.
It grinds the top of the rails, removing defects and restoring the correct rail profile after wear and tear. This extends the service life of the rails and the Metro’s trains wheels themselves.
It also helps journeys feel smoother for customers.
The vehicle will allow Nexus to carry out rail re-profiling work much more effectively and quickly than the previous manual method."
Rail grinders are widely used on mainline railways, light rail, tramways, metros, and industrial tracks.
Stuart Clarke, infrastructure director at Nexus, said: “Our new rail grinding vehicle is a game changer for how we undertake Metro track maintenance.
“It was bit of fun for our staff coming up with the name for a machine which has such an important job.
“The RRV allows us to get through a greater volume of rail profiling work. It’s a task that happens when the Metro system is closed to the public, so they don’t often get to see it.”