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Tyne & Wear Metro: Fleet Refurbishment List

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Tetchytyke

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12 Sep 2013
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Isle of Man
Noticed that 4020 was covered in graffiti today. Is it just me or are Metro units being tagged much more often than they used to be by the graffiti "artists"?

I've not noticed much more, but they had to leave a load of units out at Pelaw sidings on Saturday night because of engineering work on Sunday. Even with security guards it's not exactly a secure location.

But ASB on Metro is getting worse. It's what happens on DOO services at unstaffed stations when the police don't have resources to deal with it. The hotspots- Tyne Dock, Shiremoor, Meadow Well- are well known but neither Metro nor the police can/will put appropriate staffing in place.
 

QANN93

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2 May 2015
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27
I was on one of the old metros yesterday, why is it the doors closing tone only plays at a few stations. Is it only main stations, it's a little dangerous to just close the doors without any sort of indication.

I've seen it happen quite a lot on the told metros. any reasons?
 

MetroCar4058

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18 Jun 2014
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578
I was on one of the old metros yesterday, why is it the doors closing tone only plays at a few stations. Is it only main stations, it's a little dangerous to just close the doors without any sort of indication.

I've seen it happen quite a lot on the told metros. any reasons?

Should be sounded at all. This will either be drivers used to the single click system on the refurbished stock or issues with the sound equipment on the stock which means it is intermittently working.
 

QANN93

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2 May 2015
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Should be sounded at all. This will either be drivers used to the single click system on the refurbished stock or issues with the sound equipment on the stock which means it is intermittently working.
I'm guessing it's drivers used to the new doors closing procedure. don't you think it can be a bit dangerous the old units not having the single click system as it's very often drivers don't press the warning tone button purely out of habit of the new system
 

ModernRailways

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I was on one of the old metros yesterday, why is it the doors closing tone only plays at a few stations. Is it only main stations, it's a little dangerous to just close the doors without any sort of indication.

I've seen it happen quite a lot on the told metros. any reasons?

Often it is played but it's delayed and the doors begin closing. Drivers may forget they need to press the two buttons as refurb stock is just one button for the door tone and doors close. I imagine the newer drivers are the ones who aren't aware of the difference/forget.


On a side note, I was chatting to one of the drivers and apparently the situation is getting much worse. They don't have enough drivers to run a full service anymore and from what she was saying Saturday is going to be the first day passengers will see the consequences of Nexus not paying and treating their drivers fairly as their will be trains cancelled. Sunday is apparently going to be the same, however they're apparently going to close the service between Regent Centre and Airport from 6pm so that they can allocate the drivers elsewhere and run a bus replacement. They're focusing on keeping weekdays running smoothly. Trains will be moved into Pelaw sidings throughout the day by one driver rather than just at the end of the day by multiple drivers which would normally happen. For those of you who care there will be some 4/6 car sets out tomorrow not in service being moved into place for the Sunday possession.
 

Swanny200

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Often it is played but it's delayed and the doors begin closing. Drivers may forget they need to press the two buttons as refurb stock is just one button for the door tone and doors close. I imagine the newer drivers are the ones who aren't aware of the difference/forget.


On a side note, I was chatting to one of the drivers and apparently the situation is getting much worse. They don't have enough drivers to run a full service anymore and from what she was saying Saturday is going to be the first day passengers will see the consequences of Nexus not paying and treating their drivers fairly as their will be trains cancelled. Sunday is apparently going to be the same, however they're apparently going to close the service between Regent Centre and Airport from 6pm so that they can allocate the drivers elsewhere and run a bus replacement. They're focusing on keeping weekdays running smoothly. Trains will be moved into Pelaw sidings throughout the day by one driver rather than just at the end of the day by multiple drivers which would normally happen. For those of you who care there will be some 4/6 car sets out tomorrow not in service being moved into place for the Sunday possession.


I don't know if they are doing driver training just now or not, but I was on the Metro from Jarrow to Pelaw yesterday about 11am and when we pulled into Pelaw, there was a Metro Train in the sidings and I counted at least 9 bodies in full metro hi viz on that train, by time I had done my bits and pieces (about 40 minutes) it had gone.
 

danpick

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10 Oct 2014
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Brockley Whins
Often it is played but it's delayed and the doors begin closing. Drivers may forget they need to press the two buttons as refurb stock is just one button for the door tone and doors close. I imagine the newer drivers are the ones who aren't aware of the difference/forget.


On a side note, I was chatting to one of the drivers and apparently the situation is getting much worse. They don't have enough drivers to run a full service anymore and from what she was saying Saturday is going to be the first day passengers will see the consequences of Nexus not paying and treating their drivers fairly as their will be trains cancelled. Sunday is apparently going to be the same, however they're apparently going to close the service between Regent Centre and Airport from 6pm so that they can allocate the drivers elsewhere and run a bus replacement. They're focusing on keeping weekdays running smoothly. Trains will be moved into Pelaw sidings throughout the day by one driver rather than just at the end of the day by multiple drivers which would normally happen. For those of you who care there will be some 4/6 car sets out tomorrow not in service being moved into place for the Sunday possession.

105 missing all day today, and another set on the Yellow Line. Go North East have drivers doing Regent Centre to Airport all day tomorrow.
 

Tetchytyke

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Nexus still aren't mentioning this though. And today's Twitter is a joke, as though the missing trains were a surprise and weren't planned last night.

The car's looking a better investment every day!

That said, if you can't retain drivers when you're paying them nearly forty grand a year, something's gone badly wrong. How Tobyn Hughes is still in a job is completely beyond me, he couldn't find his own arse with both hands.
 

ModernRailways

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21 Apr 2011
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Service caped Haymarket to Airport/Four Lane Ends. If this was known days earlier (as quite a few drivers I have spoken too have alluded) then why oh why are they announcing this on the day, less than 8 hours ago they were advising it was just as previously planned (Haymarket to Regent). The planned maintenance was Regent Centre to Haymarket, to then extend it on the day says to me they are really trying to avoid refund claims for delayed journeys, but if they had of announced it a few days earlier it would be easier to claim it was planned and not just changed on the day because they lack the staff. What I'm confused by is that you would only need one set running between Regent and Airport, and just say there is a 30 minute service on that line it would still give 6 minutes minimum of turnaround time.

They were 14 drivers short yesterday. If management don't start to treat their staff well then what's the point, trains won't be looked after as well in the depot, train crew/checkies won't do overtime, won't help out, and ultimately try and find ways to move on from the company. Everything about this operation is now money money money and it really shows. DB would be getting fined like mad and would be paying extra for staff to come in to ensure this situation never occurred, Nexus just don't care because caring costs money.

There's a few managers that I'd love to know how are still in jobs. The main one is someone who manages to escape from the flak by staying hidden or passing the buck to Chris Carson (I think Chris actually cares and does want the best, and he's one of the few managers I've found to be likeable, however he's on the customer service side so I rarely encounter him but from the staff I speak too most think he's okay); Kevin Storey (Metro(NEMOL)s top dog), he's as much use as a chocolate teapot, totally and utterly useless and he should be the first to go.
 

AutoKratz

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26 Jan 2010
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110
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Washington
I don't know if they are doing driver training just now or not, but I was on the Metro from Jarrow to Pelaw yesterday about 11am and when we pulled into Pelaw, there was a Metro Train in the sidings and I counted at least 9 bodies in full metro hi viz on that train, by time I had done my bits and pieces (about 40 minutes) it had gone.

I’m not sure about that specific train but I hear there’s going to be back-to-back driver training courses for the foreseeable future. Lots of drivers retiring or moving to Northern and TPE. I’m also hearing a new advert for metro drivers is due to come out in March.
 
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MetroCar4058

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18 Jun 2014
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578
It was known at least 2 days ago that Airport - Regent Centre was probably not going to run. It was just by chance that they managed to poach someone at short notice to run 105 on the last Sunderland service last night.
 

ModernRailways

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It was known at least 2 days ago that Airport - Regent Centre was probably not going to run. It was just by chance that they managed to poach someone at short notice to run 105 on the last Sunderland service last night.

They will always run the last trains, it may mean that the last South Hylton doesn't run but the last Sunderland train gets extended down to South Hylton. I believe they did similar last night whereby the last South Shields train didn't run, however the last Pelaw train was extended down to South Shields.
 

MetroCar4058

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18 Jun 2014
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578
They will always run the last trains, it may mean that the last South Hylton doesn't run but the last Sunderland train gets extended down to South Hylton. I believe they did similar last night whereby the last South Shields train didn't run, however the last Pelaw train was extended down to South Shields.

Last night there was a resourcing issue and contingencies were planned and pprepped to mitigate against 105 not running the last Sunderland. I know the disruption planning procedures say the last train can’t be cancelled, but if the driver who did agree to stop back didn’t then there would’ve been no 105 and nothing the ops manager or resources could’ve done about it. If a driver doesn’t want to stay back, they don’t have to do so.
 

Scott M

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14 Aug 2014
Messages
395
Why is it that they are struggling to retain drivers? Always thought being a metro driver was a highly coveted job.
 

MetroCar4058

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18 Jun 2014
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578
Why is it that they are struggling to retain drivers? Always thought being a metro driver was a highly coveted job.

National shortage of drivers, a lot are being poached by TPE/Northern. Conditions are a lot better (ATOC passes, better rolling stock) and wages go up at least 15-20k just by signing up. People are also retiring.

Also Metro can only train 24 drivers a year.
 

DanNCL

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17 Jul 2017
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County Durham
Has anyone seen 4002 either in service or on depot in the last fortnight. TIA.
It was parked on it's own (with the pantograph raised) at the west end of the Depot a couple of weeks ago. Probably won't be in service for a while though as 4001 and 4083 are currently paired (and seem to be in almost daily use between Airport and South Hylton), and 4040 is still out of use.
 

SeaKing

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21 Jan 2019
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Taunton
I'am most likely going to get a few hours in Newcastle when visiting Durham early next month so hope to see 4002 as my last one. (its been hiding in depot on my previous 2 visits) Its along way from Somerset.
 

trebor79

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8 Mar 2018
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4001 and 4002 always used to run in multiple with each other when I lived in the area. Long time ago now mind!
Why is this no longer the case?
 

jkkne

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13 Aug 2012
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386
All additional trains for the Newcastle match and selected timetabled trains won’t run after 13.00 today due to crew shortages.

Nexus rampant incompetence knows no bounds.
 

ModernRailways

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21 Apr 2011
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2,046
All additional trains for the Newcastle match and selected timetabled trains won’t run after 13.00 today due to crew shortages.

Nexus rampant incompetence knows no bounds.

Would you help out when you get treat extremely poorly by management and there's no incentive to help out with extra overtime pay etc. They make it sound like it's train crews fault, when it's the resources department who are to blame.

I'm about to head to the match, hopefully it's not too bad.
 

DanNCL

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The Nexus website is now showing a line closure between North Shields and Monkseaton for Monday, so presumably this week's bridge renewal isn't going to be finished on time just like last week's wasn't...
 

jkkne

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Would you help out when you get treat extremely poorly by management and there's no incentive to help out with extra overtime pay etc. They make it sound like it's train crews fault, when it's the resources department who are to blame.

I'm about to head to the match, hopefully it's not too bad.

Absolutely not, they keep us moving. My frustration comes from being a regular user. I’m totally understanding it isn’t the CSAs, the absolute patient Saint that runs twitter account or the drivers at fault.

Nexus are horrendous. I’d much rather the whole thing was privatised, can’t be any worse. I mean 9 months later and the automatic door at four lane ends is still broken....

The Nexus website is now showing a line closure between North Shields and Monkseaton for Monday, so presumably this week's bridge renewal isn't going to be finished on time just like last week's wasn't...

They announced this Thursday (or Fri) probably a sensible contingency following last weeks farce.
 

cosmo

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10 Dec 2018
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Location
North East England
They don't have enough drivers to run a full service anymore and from what she was saying Saturday is going to be the first day passengers will see the consequences of Nexus not paying and treating their drivers fairly as their will be trains cancelled.

About a month later, they cancel some regular services from 1pm to end of service due to shortage of train crew. :s
 

7522

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28 Dec 2018
Messages
194
I believe 4002 was with 4001 on a Pelaw service today. Hope this pairing remains the way it is.
 
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