The second of the new Tyne and Wear Metro trains has arrived at Gosforth Depot. 555 004 was delivered on behalf of Stadler by RailAdventure which again involved it being transported by rail from Switzerland which included its haulage within the UK by a pair of HST power cars.
The delivery of 555 004 came in the early hours of Saturday 11th March with the HST power cars taking it as far as the Metro boundary with Network Rail before four of the current fleet of trains completed its journey for the depot at Gosforth.
In total 46 new trains will be delivered as part of a £362 million contract. These will fully replace the original Metrocars and with them being much longer this will not lose any overall capacity in the fleet. They are being built by Stadler in Switzerland and all are due to be delivered by rail.
555 003 had been the first train to arrive in the northeast when it was delivered on 28th February. Since arrival it has undergone some test runs around the depot complex including under battery power.
The first of the trains is due to enter service this autumn with all 46 in operation by 2025.
The HST power cars go up to Hebburn Station thanks to the new connections with the recent Metro Flow Project. The 4 units come from Pelaw wrong line to somewhere near the new Metro Flow Junction, they then couple up to the new unit which has been stabled somewhere between the junction and Hebburn station, once the new train has left the area, the HST gather up the barrier wagons and heads off to where it needs to go.