Newly appointed Chief Operating Officer at Nexus, Martin Kearney, has spent four hours with the night shift at South Gosforth Depot as it returns to the floor to see just what goes in to maintaining the 40 year old fleet of trains.
Mr Kearny saw the scale of the engineering works that are required to get the trains ready for service each day at 0500 and also saw the challenges the maintenance team face working with trains from the 1970s with parts which are becoming increasingly obsolete.
He also met control room staff and drivers as part of the visit.
He said: “What struck me is the team work, camaraderie and hard work that everyone is putting in. I’ve been really impressed. It was good to see is the improvements that the staff are making. We are working in challenging times with a train fleet that is 40 year-old, but the staff are doing a great job. Every single member of staff at our depot is working flat out to ensure the best possible Metro service goes out each and every day. You can see when you look around our current depot that it isn’t a new facility and the trains are very old. The maintenance teams do have a challenging job. But they are absolutely focused to get the best possible service out while we wait for Stadler to build and supply our new rolling stock.”