After months of waiting, and many hours of testing the first new Tyne and Wear Metro train has finally entered service.

The momentous occasion came at 11.04 am this morning, Wednesday, 18th December when one of the new trains departed from Pelaw to Monkseaton via Newcastle city centre. Initially, the new train will run from Monday to Friday as part of a phased roll out.

The £362m project is the biggest in Metro’s history, and the new Class 555 trains were designed after a public consultation that brought 23,000 responses.

They are being built by Swiss train manufacturer Stadler and feature linear seating, mobile charging points, climate control, 44 digital CCTV cameras, battery technology, and an automatic sliding step at each set of doors.

In total, 46 new trains are on order, and two-thirds of those have been built, 13 new trains have already been delivered, and another 25 are due in the new year.

Testing the new trains involved 90,000 individual checks and included everything from seats and windscreen wipers to brakes, CCTV, doors, wheels, and power supply.

Training staff on the new trains took a total of 19,000 hours of training time, and as part of their testing, the first few trains covered 37,000 kilometres.

A total of 480 staff are being trained to operate and maintain the new trains, and 195 Metro drivers are undergoing conversion training.

“This is an historic day for Metro and a moment I know will come as a relief to passengers, as well as being something to celebrate. I pressed Nexus and Stadler to get the first new Metro train out there for passengers as quickly as possible. I know how much hard work has gone into making that happen from many people involved in testing and solving the technical challenges. I look forward to seeing these new trains becoming a common sight next year as they are phased into use. We are now witnessing the first steps towards making Metro, once again, a world-class system the whole region can be proud of. I put a convenient, comfortable and above all reliable Metro at the heart of my vision for the future of public transport in North East England, so that when we bring buses back under control we can create the good value integrated network people are crying out for.”