All 46 new Tyne and Wear Metro trains have been successfully delivered to the region, marking another major milestone for the £362m project as it moves a step closer towards completion.
We took delivery of the final new Metro train in the early hours of Saturday 21 February, when it arrived safely at the depot in Gosforth.
Swiss train manufacturer Stadler has now supplied its order to build 46 new Metro trains for us.
The new trains are helping to transform customer experience, since they began entering service at the end of 2024.
We remain on course to have the full timetable operated by the new fleet by the Summer. When a new train arrives from Stadler, it needs to go through rigorous testing before it can enter customer service.
It is expected that the last remaining old Metro trains will be taken out of service in late Spring to early summer, with more details about their final weeks in service shared in the coming weeks. The rest of the old Metro fleet will continue to be recycled.
The roll out of the new trains is the biggest and most complex project in Metro’s history.
Cathy Massarella, Managing Director of Nexus, said: “I’m delighted to confirm that all 46 new Tyne and Wear Metro trains have been successfully delivered to our region.
“This is another significant moment for the project, which is getting closer to completion. It is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work by our own teams and by our colleagues at Stadler.
“We already have more than half of the new Metro fleet available for customer service, and we are on course for all 46 trains to be ready by the end of this year.
“The new Metro trains are already proving to be transformative for customers. They represent a bright future for the Metro service.
“Our focus is to get all of the remaining new trains through testing and kilometre accumulation and ready for service, so the hard work will carry on from here.
“The fleet deliveries have been a complex process over the last few years. Each delivery was meticulously planned, and it’s involved a huge amount of night shifts to get us to this point.”
Stadler Switzerland CEO, Lucius Gerig, said: “Nearly three years after the arrival of the first vehicle, Stadler has successfully delivered all 46 bespoke trains to Nexus — a fleet tailored to the needs of the Tyne and Wear Metro. This is a proud moment for Stadler and a milestone made possible by the dedication of our team and our close collaboration with Nexus.“
All 46 of the new Metro trains have been hauled to the UK by rail from the Stadler factory in Switzerland.
That process began when the first new Class 555 train was delivered in February 2023.
Each new train has been hauled by a locomotive across mainland Europe and into the UK via the Channel Tunnel – a journey of 1,800 miles.
Designed by customers following an extensive customer consultation which resulted in over 23,000 responses, the new Metro trains include linear seating, mobile charging points, climate control, 44 CCTV cameras, battery technology, and new accessibility standards, including an automatic sliding step at each set of doors to allow for seamless boarding.