There has been a gap of a few weeks since we last had an update of changes to the fleet on the Tyne and Wear Metro but after a brief pause the past week has seen another couple of the original Metrocars head off for scrap. Meanwhile, the 34th of the new Stadler units has entered service.
The latest scrappings started on Monday 13th April 2026 when 4060 was collected from Howdon and then just 24 hours later it was the turn of 4061 to make the final one-way journey.
Both trains’ departure followed the standard process. They were moved from the main depot at Gosforth to Howdon sandwiched between still operational sisters (not that there are many of those left now!) from where G C S Johnson Heavy Haulage collected them on the back of a lorry. The low loader then took them to J Denham Metals in Bishop Auckland.
The use of the Metrocars in service is now a case of only when they are needed with no specific booked turns for them with enough of the Stadler trains now available to operate the standard service. There are just 15 of the Metrocars which remain at Gosforth, although several of these have probably run for the last time. The remaining units are 4009, 4020, 4024, 4027, 4029, 4035, 4041, 4050, 4065, 4068, 4069, 4078, 4079, 4081, 4085.
But where something is taken from one hand, something else is given from the other as the Metro has also welcomed another of the new trains into service. This came on Tuesday 14th April 2026 (the same day as 4061 went for scrap) when 555 036 carried its first fare paying passengers.
555 036 was delivered to the network on 5th September 2025 when it was the third unit of the same delivery with 555 040 and 555 041 (both of which have already entered service).
This now leaves 555 022–555 026, 555 029, 555 033, 555 042–555 046 still to enter service. The oldest delivery of these is 555 043 which arrived on 10th October 2025.