Up until now the only daylight sightings of the trains being built to run on the Tyne and Wear Metro have been of them stabled at the depot (or in various railway yards as they made their way to the northeast. But that all changed on Wednesday 15th May when 555 005 became the first of the new class to start daytime testing.
The train – one of 46 vehicles being constructed by Stadler in Switzerland, of which 23 have now been confirmed as being completed – started its daylight testing at 1400 on Wednesday 15th May which saw it operated in the gaps of the service on the coastal route between Newcastle and North Tyneside.
Of course, this is another significant milestone in the £362 million project to completely replace the current fleet of trains which have provided service for over 40 years. The daylight testing will allow for kilometre accumulation (like mileage accumulation but metric!) as well as put them through their paces by simulating customer service.
This follows on from extensive overnight testing which has seen the already delivered trains cover the complete Metro network. The testing has included 90,000 individual checks covering everything from seats and windscreen wipers to items such as brakes, CCTV, doors, wheels and power supply.
There are approximately 19,000 hours of training time and the first few trains will be required to complete 37,000 kilometres of running during testing before being cleared for service. 480 staff will also have to be trained on the units, a huge undertaking which will take some time and so its not expected to be some time before they can carry passengers – Nexus are only committing to later this year at the moment.
Kim McGuinness, North East Mayor, said: “The North East deserves the best public transport system. I have promised to deliver the best connected and greenest network in the UK and that’s exactly what we’ll do. Our region’s new £362m fleet will be transformational by improving comfort and reliability for the people who use the Metro every day to travel to work or to get to school or college. It’s great to see testing underway today thanks to a lot of hard work by the team at Nexus. We’ll make sure an improved service is up and running as soon as possible.”
Michael Richardson, Head of Fleet and Depot Replacement for Nexus, added: “We’re excited to have our first new trains in daytime testing on the network, which will give customers a chance to see them for the first time. This marks a new milestone in our £362m Metro Fleet programme. It’s a big step forward as we continue to get the first few trains ready for customer service.
“We will be working closely with Stadler during the daytime test runs, with the new train slotted in between other timetabled services. Customers are going to see the new trains on different parts of the network. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to get on board at this stage as it’s still in the live testing phase. Special signage will be attached to every set of doors to advise people the train is under test and that they can’t board the carriage.
“Testing the new trains is the most complex and challenging part of what is the biggest project we’ve undertaken since the Metro system was first built. There is great attention to detail. It’s very much like the testing that a car manufacturer undertakes when it’s preparing to unveil a new model. The trains need to be put through their paces to ensure that they are ready for day to day customer service.”
And project manager for Stadler, Patrick Kung, commented: “Our next stage of testing will be focused on kilometre accumulation, during which trains must run without faults affecting service longer than three minutes over significant distances, in order stress-test the overall reliability of the units. This ultimately enables Stadler to supply trains with high levels of reliability, enhancing the passenger experience.”
The new trains are completely walk through units and will avoid the need for two trains to be coupled together to operate as they are longer than those they will replace. They will also provide an upturn in passenger comfort and accessibility.
46 trains are on order of which 23 have been completed although only seven have been delivered so far.
- A video of the first daytime tests is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Bz7lfkp25gY?si=T1QYfuE7Q9bx3xyP