It was all going so well… The phased introduction of the new trains being built by Stadler for the Tyne and Wear Metro had seen nine of the units enter passenger service between December 2024 and April 2025 but this has now been paused with all of the train taken temporarily out of use. In a statement the reason for their withdrawal has been an operational issue which is now being fully investigated before they can run again.
The trains had been noted as out of service as from the Tuesday (22nd April) after the long Easter weekend, with Nexus releasing a statement on Thursday 24th April to confirm what was happening.
In the statement, Cathy Massarella, the Managing Director at Nexus, said: “We have recently identified an operational issue with the new Metro trains which is affecting the dispatch process with the doors. We have therefore decided to temporarily pause the new fleet’s entry into customer service while we investigate this further.
“The introduction of a new fleet of trains is very complex and we would expect to see minor technical and operational issues crop up as part of this process.
“The roll out is a mix of continued technical performance monitoring, tweaking operational practices, and understanding how customers are interacting with the range of new features of the train.
“We will continue to work closely with Stadler to review and address any issues, and continually learn from them. This is why we have taken a careful phased approach to fleet introduction.
“Thankfully these trains benefit from a really sophisticated diagnostic system so when anything unexpected does arise, it is usually identified quickly. This minimises disruption to services and gives us valuable learning to address future reliability.
“We are aiming to continue with the roll out of the new fleet as soon as possible. We will keep customers updated and I’d like to thank them in advance for their patience.”
With all nine having been withdrawn, all diagrams on the network are being covered by the aging Metrocars once again and until further notice.