Shortly before Christmas there was an early present for Nexus and the Tyne and Wear Metro when the first of the (eventually) 46 new trains entered service. Since then, and with a break for Christmas, the phased introduction of the Stadler built units has continued with a weekday single diagram remaining in operation.
Wednesday 18th December 2024 saw 555 021 enter service as the very first of the trains to carry passengers and this has seen the most use since. It was then joined in the ranks of having carried passengers on the last day of 2024 by 555 020. So far, its been either one or the other with just the one diagram remaining in place for the time being.
Over the coming year more trains will enter service (although its not planned that all 46 will be operational in the next 12 months) and a recent article in the Newcastle Chronicle gave confirmation of what Nexus’ plans are for their service introduction.
That article stated that 23 of the trains should be in service by the end of December 2025 and with 46 on order than means it will be exactly half of them. Currently there are 13 of the trains in the northeast of England and its expected that a further 20 of the units will be delivered from Switzerland during 2025.
Meanwhile, the Metro continues to struggle to operate its advertised service with (mostly) the aging Metrocars. They have struggled to provide a full service at times in the cold weather, with Thursday 9th January seeing issues at the start of the day leading to large gaps in the service and then an early end to some of the service. Inevitably, the press have also reported on the first failure of one of the new trains in service which saw a unit out of action for a few hours from its diagram.
As well as the trains in service, testing and driver training continues (the driver training programme is scheduled to carry on until 2026). 555 002 is one of the units which has been employed on these duties – this train arrived on 18th June 2024, along with one of the two trains to have carried passengers (555 021). This is Pelaw with the unit heading to South Shields where it would go into the Training Centre compound. (Photograph by Trevor Hall, 6th January 2025)