A sparkling new fleet of trains could just be the first step in a series of dramatic upgrades to the Tyne and Wear Metro, transport bosses hope.
New designs for a more modern and reliable fleet were unveiled on Tuesday morning, with it confirmed that Swiss firm Stadler will build the trains.
The new carriages will arrive gradually between 2022 and 2024 and should be 15 times more reliable than the current, ageing stock.
But Metro bosses are hopeful that passengers will benefit from even more improvements, with Government ministers indicating that more cash is on the way to fund significant upgrades.
As part of a £377m bid to the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund, North East leaders want twin tracking of the rail lines between Pelaw and Tyne Dock - increasing the number of Metro trains that could run on the network at the same time.
Transport North East MD Tobyn Hughes said he is “very confident” of ministers backing the ‘Metro Flow’ project, which he hopes to follow up with a long-awaited expansion of the network into new areas such as Newcastle’s West End or Washington.
He said: “We have a very strong bid in to the Transforming Cities Fund for the region. We are very positive and we are looking forward to hearing an announcement in March. That would be the next step.
“Today is step one and it is a huge, huge step for our current passengers. Step two is to increase the frequency to get more people in and out of our cities.
“Step three is to look further afield at where we can bring services to communities and businesses that need them.”
The Government has provided £337m towards the new Metro fleet, but rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris pledged that there “will be more to come”.
He added: “The budget is on March 11 and I would imagine you can expect some more announcements shortly after that.”
Stadler will be building 42 new trains for Nexus, but that order could be increased to 46 if the Flow project gets the green light.
