As we reported a few weeks ago, the last of the new trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro entered service during October 2026. This brings an end to the £362 million project to introduce 46 new state-of-the-art trains to replace the original trains which had given over 40 years of service to the northeast.
The handing over of 555 022 to service came two months ahead of the end of 2026 target date, and some 22 months since the first (555 021) carried its first passengers.
Cathy Massarella, Managing Director of Nexus, said: “I’m pleased to confirm that we now have all 46 new Tyne and Wear Metro trains formally handed over to us by Stadler. This marks the final phase of the biggest project in Metro’s history.
“We set a target for the end of this year to achieve this milestone, and we’ve managed to get there a bit sooner than that.
“My thanks go to everyone at Nexus and to the team at Stadler for all their hard work on the project. It’s been a brilliant effort by everyone involved. Many thousands of hours have gone into the testing process.
“We are now in the final phase of the most significant project since Metro was first built. It’s been a complex and detailed programme, from the announcement of the funding in 2017, to the start of the build process, and then roll out into service for our customers.”
Paul Patrick, Managing Director, Stadler Rail Service UK, said: “This is an important moment in a long-term project but the hard work doesn’t stop. Our partnership with Nexus continues for the long-term with Stadler colleagues at the Gosforth depot working around the clock to maintain, repair and prepare the new trains for service every day.”
Since the first train was handed over it has been an average of one new train being handed over every 15 days.