New Tyne and Wear Metro fleet update as more trains arrive from Switzerland

The 16th and 17th units in the Stadler fleet, out of a total 46 that will be built, were delivered to the Metro’s Gosforth depot in the early hours of Friday morning.

After the first of the Swiss-made trains entered passenger service last December, the modern carriages are being gradually rolled out.

They are replacing the struggling carriages that have served the Metro network since it opened in 1980 and have become increasingly failure-prone.

As well as being 15 times more reliable than their predecessors, the new trains have modern features like phone charging points, climate control, and a sliding step at every door.

Five of the new fleet are now running in the timetable on weekdays, with one train also now operating on weekends as well, and 76 out of 200 drivers are fully trained up to use them.

On Friday, Metro operator Nexus says it still expects to have half of the new fleet in service by the end of 2025 and all of the new trains by the end of 2026.

 Paul Welford, Major Projects Director at Nexus, said: “The roll out of the new Metro train fleet is going well.

“Customers will have started to notice that more new trains are now operating on the system. These new trains are transformative in terms of comfort, quality, security and reliability.

“This is the biggest project in Metro’s history and the introduction of new trains is a culmination of many months of detailed testing and commissioning on our network.

“We have now put five new Metro trains into customer service and more will be entering service in the coming weeks. The trains are running on both the yellow and green lines, seven days a week.

“In terms of delivery, we have 17 new Metro trains in North East England, which are either in service or undergoing our rigorous testing programme. Stadler will be delivering around 16 more new trains from their factory in Switzerland this calendar year. They have built more than two thirds of the 46 new trains that we have on order.

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“We are working incredibly hard with our colleagues at Stadler to ensure each new train is ready to operate safely for our customers.

“We still anticipate that we will safely transition 23 new Metro trains into customer service by the end of 2025, and have all 46 in service by the end of 2026.

“We’re also making good progress with our Metro driver training programme. This continues in parallel with the roll out the new fleet. Over 80 traincrew have completed the course which qualifies them to drive the new Metro trains.”

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