Pause on the introduction of new Tyne and Wear fleet

On 24 April 2025, the Managing Director of Tyne and Wear Metro has announced that there has been a pause on the introduction of its new fleet. In a statement, Cathy Massarella, has 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.” 

Update on the roll out of the new Metro train fleet, 30 April 2025: Cathy Massarella, Managing Director of Nexus said: “Following our decision to temporarily suspend the new trains in service last week, I am pleased to confirm the new fleet has started to be re-introduced back into service from today. We have worked closely with Stadler to identify a solution to the issue and resume the programme as soon as possible. I know this temporary pause was disappointing, but we don’t expect this to have any impact on the overall roll out timescales. I’d like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding on this matter.”

The current timescale:

August 2021 - Production started on the new trains.
February 2023 - The first train arrived in the North East for testing.
May 2024- Daytime testing begins.
18 December 2024 - The first new Metro train entered customer service. 
2025 - The new Metro trains will arrive in stages. As each new train enters service, an old one will be removed.
2026 - Full new fleet in service.