Depends on who you talk to, but I believe that all of the Metrocars were to be refurbished until Nexus started haemorraghing money on just about all of the projects. 4001/02 are an easy target seeing as they are not the same as the rest of the fleet, and therefore would need different spec work done to them. I have no idea which the third will be, but seeing as 4044 is back in service, then there should only be one flood damaged car at the depot.
Yes, that was true. All of them where due to be refurbished but they don't have enough money to complete it and so 3 Metrocar's will be not be done. I was told that the flood damaged Metro that is still in the depot should be back out soon and as such it will just be a random Metrocar chosen not to be refurbed.
At the minute there is no set way of allocating the refurbished units on a daily basis, which is why they are seen on full diagrams and also the morning and evening peak services. As like anywhere else, it will go on a mileage basis, so putting them all on the St. James - South Shields line only doesn't sound right.
What I meant was that by the Summer they will have enough refurbished units so that they could run a full diagram, that won't happen though, like you say, and it will be kept as it is right now with them running 'random' diagrams - as in across all sections of the Metro system, including the Pelaw peak's.
The recent funding annoucement isn't anything new - Nexus has been provisionally given around £350 million, but this is delivered in sections. Nexus has to show the DfT at various stages that it is delivering what has been promised to get the next tranche of money. The DfT seems happy so it has given out more of the money, although I'm suprised that nothing has been said about the delays. IIRC the first new ticket machine was installed in the back end of 2011, and we are now in March 2013. According to the Metro Facebook group, the new ticket machines, barriers and Pop card will all come on line fully in September, so that is nearly two years just for a small part of the overall project.
The whole smart card thing has been a complete disaster so far, I received an Under 16 Pop Card for absolutely no reason - I had it for less than 3 months. Fair enough they had to start somewhere mind. I also thought it was all going to be integrated so that you would be able to use a Pop Card on the buses, a friend who does the 27 'Crusader' for Go North East say's they haven't been told anything by Nexus and that it looks like the Pop Card is going to be Metro only for a good few months at least. Problem is, is that the buses already have ITSO readers and so it would only be a small upgrade to the software inside to recognize the Pop Card.
Finally, I haven't been told about bikes, and neither have the Newcastle Cycling Campaign/other transport groups who have been pressing for bicycles to be allowed on the Metro. Unfortunately I still cannot see it happening due to safety.
Like I said it was a rumour, I too believe it won't happen, although it would be very welcome if they did allow the carriage of cycles on-board. Would mean I would be able to take my Bike to London instead of getting a Boris bike all the time (I don't want to have to cycle to Newcastle at 5am).
