Metro carries 38 million passengers every year on the busiest and most frequent local rail network outside of London - it is vital we continue to invest in this asset and develop it for the future.
The current Metrocars were constructed in the late 1970s and have served their purpose well but the fleet is coming to the end of its life, with many components effectively life-expired, contributing to an unstable operating environment.
We have been granted £337m by the Government to buy new trains which will need to be built specially to operate on Metro infrastructure. We are about to start a procurement process which will see new trains operating from late 2021. This new fleet will take Metro into the future with world-class reliability and comfort, much greater energy-efficiency and modern carriage features and technology for our passengers.
Securing the future of the existing Metro network and trains through continued investment means we can now look in new directions - studying possible extensions to Metro and local rail in North East England by exploiting the region's disused or underused rail alignments.
Our plans are supported by the North East Combined Authority, the Local Enterprise Partnership and major businesses, universities and public service providers.
An enormous thank you to everyone who has supported Metro Futures. You can see our list of supporters by clicking on the link below.
If you would like to know more about Metro Futures please contact us at [email protected].
