The 16th and 17th trains have arrived at Tyne and Wear Metro’s Gateshead depot, with officials saying the new trains are still on track to all fully be in service by the end of 2026.
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00:00The latest delivery brings the total number of new Metro trains on Tyneside to 17, with 16 more set to follow this year.
00:08The 16th and 17th units in the 46-strong fleet rolled into the Metro's Gosfath depot in the early hours of Friday morning,
00:15marking another key milestone in what is the largest investment in the network's 44-year history.
00:21Metro operator Nexus confirmed on Friday that despite the scale of the operation, the rollout remains firmly on track.
00:27The authority still expects to have half of the new fleet in service by the end of 2025, and all 46 trains running by the end of 2026.
00:37Since the first of the new trains began carrying passengers in December 2023, the rollout has steadily progressed.
00:43As of now, five of the high-tech vehicles are operating on the Metro's weekday timetable, with one also running on weekends.
00:50These new trains currently serve both the yellow and green lines, and are expected to become an increasingly common site over the coming months.
00:59Paul Welford, Major Projects Director at Nexus, said that the rollout has been progressing well, saying,
01:05Customers will have started to notice that more new trains are operating on the system.
01:11These new trains are transformative in terms of comfort, quality, security, and reliability.
01:16This 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.
01:26Training of Metro drivers is also progressing in parallel with the vehicle rollout.
01:32So far, 76 of the 200-strong driver workforce are fully qualified to operate the new units, with over 80 having completed the intensive training programme to date.