Tyne & Wear Metro Class 555s will arrive ready to go

The experience gained from trial running with the first handful of Stadler Class 555s on the Tyne & Wear Metro means that all further units will be fully modified and ready to run as soon as they arrive from the factory in Switzerland.

However, system owner and operator Nexus has scotched suggestions that the first public service runs will be for the Great North Run on September 8, because not enough train crews are passed on them. It has also not said if they will be launched before the end of the year.

Daylight testing is being stepped up across the system, and some ‘555s’ have now been seen around the coast, at Newcastle Airport, and in Sunderland, but not yet on Network Rail-owned infrastructure.

Tyne & Wear Metro faces several challenges in the next few months, the biggest of which is maintaining the current timetable with a declining number of serviceable Metrocars dating back to 1978, although this has been helped by the decision last March to take out additional Benton-Pelaw peak-hour services.

Only 62 of the original 90 units are now in use, with several recent withdrawals used to provide spare parts before scrapping. The sidings space they take up at South Gosforth depot means that Nexus has only been possible to take delivery of nine ‘555s’ so far, with four more expected in September.

The units now in the North East are 555001-005/013/015/020/021, with another 14 in Switzerland (555006-012/014/016-019/ 022/023) awaiting transfer. This leaves 555024-028 under construction, and the final 18 (555029-046) yet to be started.

The Metro’s control room at South Gosforth is to be modernised over the next two years at a cost of £8.8 million. The 30-year-old Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA) is be replaced by digital equipment, which is faster at finding faults in power supplies, escalators, lighting and tunnel drainage.