The fleet of new Metro trains have started to carry passengers again following their temporary removal from service last week. The first unit returned to service again during the afternoon of Wednesday 30th April having not been used since the Easter weekend.
The withdrawal of the complete fleet of nine commissioned trains came after an “operational issue” was identified. Although Nexus didn’t ever fully acknowledge what this issue was (save for “affecting the dispatch process with the doors”) reports in the media have said that the problem was that the doors on at least one unit opened on the wrong side at a station/ No-one was injured during this incident but obviously it’s a bit of a concern with just what could have happened in the worst case scenario.
In a statement following their return to service Cathy Massarella, Managing Director of Nexus, said: “Following our decision to temporarily suspend the new trains in service last week, I am pleased to confirm the new fleet has started to be re-introduced back into service from today.
“We have worked closely with Stadler to identify a solution to the issue and resume the programme as soon as possible.
“I know this temporary pause was disappointing, but we don’t expect this to have any impact on the overall roll out timescales.
“I’d like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding on this matter.”
555 027 was the first of the new trains to return to service with it being used on the South Shields service. Further examples are expected to return to action in the coming days.