Work underway on temporary Metro depot

The Tyne and Wear Metro is scheduled to get a new, albeit temporary, depot by next summer in Howdon and work is now underway preparing the former landfill site for the main construction works. Extensive earth works are required first with excavators now on site to level the area.

The depot is needed to mainly allow for some trains to be kept there rather than at South Gosforth whilst the main depot undergoes some redevelopment work of its own in preparation for the new train fleet. And the new train fleet will also be initially delivered to Howdon upon arrival from the end of 2021.

Stephen Bowles, Nexus Project Manager, said: “We’ve stripped off all of the top soil on the site and we’re levelling it off. We are putting down reclaim materials and that’s the base that we can put the new Metro lines on that will serve the depot building. There is lots of work on site at the moment with earth moving equipment. Once all that is done the new depot will be built and the all of the associated railway infrastructure can go in. This depot will be used primarily for the existing Metro fleet while we rebuild the main depot in Gosforth. It will also be an access point for the new Metro trains they start to arrive in late 2021.”

It is planned the new depot will be operational by summer 2020 with it being used for up to ten trains to be cleaned and prepared ahead of service each day.

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