The two and a half year project to redevelop the Tyne and Wear Metro depot at Gosforth has really begun in earnest with the demolition work now underway at the 100 year old depot. Work commenced on demolishing the south east side of the depot on Monday 8th March – with this area to be used to build the new depot building.
Thompsons of Prudhoe have been subcontracted to demolish the old depot with this first stage seeing the roof and ageing brickwork of the structure being pulled down. Stadler – who have the maintenance contract of the Metro fleet as well as building the new fleet of trains – have appointed VolkerFitzpatrick to build the new depot which will be opened in stages up until 2024.
Metro Development Director, Neil Blagburn, said: “The start of the demolition work at Gosforth depot is the first major stage in the works that will transform our fleet maintenance facilities for generations to come. The current depot has stood there for 100 years and has been the home for Metro since the late 1970s. It’s a very old building that is long past its best and while we’re sad in some respects to see it go, it is essential that we take the opportunity to construct a new state of the art depot for our new trains. It will allow the train maintainer to introduce the very latest maintenance practices which will benefit our customers for years to come. The depot transformation is already well underway and will continue over the next two and a half years with the old buildings disappearing in phases. We are storing up to a quarter of our trains at our satellite depot in Howdon throughout this process.”
The new depot is described as being state of the art and environmentally friendly. It will eventually house the 42 new trains which are due to be built in Switzerland and will be introduced up until 2024.
As we’ve mentioned before although redevelopment works are now underway at the depot that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still actively being used and will be throughout the works. However, different areas of the depot are having to be used which has led to complaints from some local residents over the noise of the idling trains overnight.
According to a report in the Newcastle Chronicle the trains are being stabled closer to housing which is causing the disturbance. The article reveals that for over 10 years maintenance staff have not completely shutdown the units each night because of worries that the unreliability of the now 40 years old vehicles would mean they would not start again in the morning. This wasn’t an issue until recently but now they are being stabled closer to housing it has led to complaints from local residents.
As a result after discussions Stadler have agreed to shutdown the trains overnight when they are stabled immediately adjacent to the homes of Cheswick Drive. They have said they will be seeking to mitigate the risk of failures after restarting the trains. Although they have agreed to this compromise they have warned the residents that there may still be noise as trains are shunted around the depot.