It may have seemed like its been a long time coming but the Tyne and Wear Metro has welcomed two further examples of the new Stadler built trains – coming eight months since the last one was delivered. The two which have now been delivered are 555 013 and 555 015, with the pair arriving together in the early hours of Saturday 16th December 2023.
555 013 and 555 015 followed a familiar pattern of delivery to the previous three. They came into the UK via the Channel Tunnel and were then moved up the country with a pair of RailAdventure HST powercars doing the honours up the East Coast Mainline. It was when they reached the boundary between Network Rail and Metro lines at Pelaw that the operation of delivery changed.
The previous three were all dragged from there to Gosforth by some of the outgoing Metrocars but this time that honour fell to one of the other Stadler units which was already in the UK. The chosen vehicles on this occasion were 555 003 and 555 005.
Testing of the new trains continues, with this all having taken place at night so far. The date of a proper entry into service – originally due to be 2023 – had already been confirmed as being delayed but it had previously been said that there would be a demonstration run before the year was out. With not long left in 2023 though whether this is achieved remains to be seen.