Contractors working for VolkerFitzpatrick have begun work to demolish the Tyne and Wear Metro Depot in Newcastle.

Part of a £70 million project to improve Tyne and Wear Metro services, a brand new Depot, to maintain and house their brand new fleet of trains ordered, is being built.

Thompsons of Prudhoe are currently on the site where the new depot will be built. The old Gosforth Depot, previously used by Tyne and Wear Metro and roughly 100 years old, is being taken down to create the space.

Starting at the South East side of the structure, teams began removing sections of the roof and layers of bricks. All together the clearing of the site and building the new depot is scheduled to take around two and a half years.

This work starts thanks to train manufacturer Stadler, who selected VolkerFitzpatrick to carry out the build side of the project.

Stadler signed a 35-year maintenance contract with Tyne and Wear Metro’s parent company Nexus last year in October, with a new depot to play a key part in maintaining the new fleet of 42 trains.

Metro Development Director, Neil Blagburn, said: “The start of the demolition work at Gosforth depot is the first major stage in the works that will transform our fleet maintenance facilities for generations to come.

“The current depot has stood there for 100 years and has been the home for Metro since the late 1970s. It’s a very old building that is long past its best and while we’re sad in some respects to see it go, it is essential that we take the opportunity to construct a new state of the art depot for our new trains. It will allow the train maintainer to introduce the very latest maintenance practices which will benefit our customers for years to come.

“The depot transformation is already well underway and will continue over the next two and a half years with the old buildings disappearing in phases. We are storing up to a quarter of our trains at our satellite depot in Howdon throughout this process.”

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