Workers at the Tyne and Wear Metro depot in Gosforth are getting ready to say a final goodbye to the iconic Metrocars as they enter their last official few weeks in service.<\/p>\n
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As announced earlier this month, the last guaranteed week of Metrocar action is due to be between Monday 22nd<\/sup> and Friday 26th<\/sup> June when at least one diagram on both lines will be operated by them up until the early evening. Although they may still be used after this date there will be no more planned diagrams using the units which have been the mainstay of the network since it opened in 1980.<\/p>\n The maintenance teams at Gosforth have spent decades repairing, improving and tending to the fleet, but now its time to say goodbye. The team, who now work for Stadler as part of the maintenance contract which is seeing new trains introduced, have fond memories of the outgoing fleet but recognise its time for a change.<\/p>\n One of those is Paul Patrick. He started his career at the Metro depot in 1995 as an apprentice fitter and is now Stadler\u2019s Head of Region for the UK, Ireland and North America.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe old trains have been great workhorses for so many years. They have been the life blood of our region, taking people to work, to appointments, and on nights out.<\/p>\n \u201cMetro is the beating heart of the North East and not many other UK cities have a railway quite like it. The trains we are about to say goodbye to have pride of place in Metro\u2019s story.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked on them when I became an apprentice aged 16. It\u2019s a bittersweet feeling to see them go. Everyone recognises they are life expired now. They have done their job.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do feel an attachment to them. There are many I\u2019ve repaired many times over and they\u2019re now in a breaker\u2019s yard. The new trains are amazing and it\u2019s absolutely right that we have them now. They bring a smile to people\u2019s faces when they see them arrive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must move on to the new technology, and I\u2019m so also proud to be part of the introduction and maintenance of the new fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlene Tindale, 40 from Northumberland is a Trainer and Assessor who has marked at the depot since 2014. She said: \u201cThey\u2019re iconic trains. I joined when they were getting their three-quarter life refurbishment, so it\u2019s sad to see them go, but we did really need new ones. The old units were actually quite simple to work on.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a sense of emotion and pride they have managed to run for 46 years. Getting as far as they have is down to the expertise and commitment of everyone at the depot. The fact we have kept them going is something to be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Stafford, 18 of Dinnington is a Rolling Stock Apprentice who joined Stadler just last year. He commented: \u201cThe trains have been around for a long time and they\u2019re all I\u2019ve ever known in my lifetime. I\u2019m being trained on the new fleet and haven\u2019t had a chance to work on the old one, but I know that it\u2019s completely different. The tech is miles apart, one is analogue and the other is digital.\u201d<\/p>\n Eldon Tams, 43 of High Heaton is Depot Controller, he said: \u201c\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see them go but we have to look to the future with the new trains. The old trains used to be really reliable but less so in recent years due to their age. The new trains are going to be much better for the passengers.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to work in Metro customer services before I joined the depot, so those old trains are all I knew for so many years. They\u2019ll be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Workers at the Tyne and Wear Metro depot in Gosforth are getting ready to say a final goodbye to the iconic Metrocars as they enter their last official few weeks in service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63400,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63399\/revisions\/63400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}