There are now four possible new trains which you could see out in service on the Tyne and Wear Metro after 555 005 became the latest to be used in revenue service. The Stadler built train carried its first passengers on Tuesday 25th February – the second of the trains to have entered service within four days.
555 005 has been in the UK just less than two years having been delivered from Switzerland on 6th April 2023 and was just the third of the class to arrive in northeast England. In entering service it becomes the unit which has been in the UK the longest which has carried passengers with the other three having been 2024 deliveries.
Although both routes are now seeing regular Stadler trains in service, as with the previous three which entered service its first use was on the St James to South Shields (via the North Tyneside coast) route.
The three trains to have run in service now are 555 002 (first use 21st February 2025), 555 020 (first use 31st December 2024) and 555 021 (first use 18th December 2024). In total 15 of the trains are in the UK.