One of the new trains currently entering service on the Tyne and Wear Metro has starred on national television with Michael Portillio taking a ride during the first episode of “Michael Portlillo’s 200 Years of the Railways”, which originally aired on Tuesday 16th September 2025.
The programme has been made to commemorate the 200th anniversary of railways and saw Michael Portillo travel by train over the north-east of England which included the chance to get on board one of the new Stadler built trains in the company of Nexus Managing Director, Cathy Massarella.
After taking a trip on the trains he also went to the South Shields Learning Centre where he had a go at the state-of-the-art and fully immersive Metro driver training simulator, which threw a few curveballs at him whilst he took the train along the line!
Cathy Massarella commented: “It was brilliant to welcome Michael Portillo on board our new Metro trains. This was a great opportunity for us to showcase the new trains to a national TV audience of millions.
“This is a hugely significant year as the railways mark their 200th anniversary, so for Metro to be part of a programme about that, at such an important time in its own history, is amazing.
“It was great to meet Michael and explain the features and benefits of our new trains, which are going to be transformative in terms comfort and quality for our customers and our own workforce.
“Our Metro driver simulator was also shown in the programme. This is a fantastic piece of immersive training technology and it vital for us to deliver driver training on the new Metro trains.”
- This episode – as well as episode 2 – can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002jmr3/michael-portillos-200-years-of-the-railways