Gosforth Depot

From Tyne and Wear Metro wiki
A number of outdoor stabling roads, with a number of metrocars occupying them as well as one Class 555 unit. A small building is visible on the left, next to two roads that end in buffers.
Outdoor stabling roads, seen from the panel room
A modern building with a grey wall and yellow-cream coloured panels above door height. On the panels there is a blue Stadler logo. There is a smaller blue Stadler logo on the other side of the building, above a storage shed.
Southeast exterior of the main building

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Gosforth Depot (DEP) is the main depot for cleaning, maintaining, and stabling the Tyne and Wear Metro fleet. It occupies 12 acres of land at the north of the Gosforth Triangle, between Regent Centre, South Gosforth and Longbenton. It is owned by Nexus but maintained by SRS UK (Stadler) as part of a 35-year contract that began on 4 October 2020.[1]

Layout

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The depot is mostly made up of seventeen stabling roads, all powered by overhead lines (OHL), but also contains:[2][3]

  • A main building on the southeast end, containing a maintenance shed (north) and a number of staff facilities (south).
    • The maintenance shed contains four inspection/maintenance roads accessible via stabling roads 10 to 13. Two of these roads are used for light maintenance and the other two are used for heavy maintenance. The light maintenance roads have monorail cranes and the heavy maintenance roads have an overhead crane.
    • One of the rooms in the southern part of the main building is the multi-million pound digital panel room, used for signalling trains in the depot, overlooking the stabling roads west of the building.[4]
  • A train wash on the northeast end, connected to stabling roads 1 to 4. Unlike the other buildings, the train wash contains OHL.
  • A wheel lathe building on road 17 southwest of and directly adjacent to the main shed.
  • An underframe cleaning (UFC) shed on the east end of road 11.

Nexus also owns and operates an avoiding line (connecting Regent Centre and Longbenton) and a small shed (used for some of Nexus' maintenance rail vehicles, such as MA60), and both are directly next to the depot, but neither is officially part of the depot.

Access

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The depot is linked by rail directly to all three adjacent stations. Regent Centre is accessible via the west end then Gosforth West Junction (GWJ). South Gosforth is accessible via the west neck (between the west end and the main line), then Gosforth Middle Junction (GMJ), then Gosforth South Junction. Longbenton is accessible via the east end then Gosforth East Junction (GEJ), which has a public footbridge running over it.

On foot or road, the depot can only be accessed from the south, via the Gosforth Triangle.

History

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Pre-Tyne and Wear Metro (1923-1980)

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The original Gosforth Depot was built in 1921 and opened on 1 October 1923. It was built on behalf of North Eastern Railway to house rolling stock for Tyneside Electrics after a fire on 11 August 1918 destroyed Heaton Car Sheds where this stock had originally been based.[5]

Metrocars stabled alongside the old Gosforth Depot shed

Tyne and Wear Metro old depot (1980-2020)

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The depot was transferred to Tyne and Wear PTE (now Nexus) on 11 August 1980,[6] the same day the Metro services opened to the public. 56 metrocars had already been delivered to the depot by March 1980,[7] resulting in a brief period during which the depot was shared between Nexus' fleet and British Rail DMUs.[8] A full refurbishment was needed to get it ready for the Metro, which included the installation of OHL, inspection gantries, wheel lathes and lifting jacks.[7]

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Tyne and Wear Metro new depot (2020-present)

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On 19 July 2016, the North East Combined Authority (NECA) approved Nexus' "Metro Futures" strategy which, in addition to a new fleet of trains that became the Class 555 fleet, also included an interest in updated depot facilities.[9] On 8 June 2018, an open tender was launched for a contract to build the new fleet and to build and run a new depot at the existing site in Gosforth.[10] To stable some of the fleet while the new Gosforth Depot was being built, Nexus also ordered that a temporary second depot, Howdon Satellite Depot, would be built.[11] On 28 January 2020, it was announced that Stadler had won this contract, and that the new Gosforth Depot would cost £70 million.[12] On 15 June 2020, Stadler appointed VolkerFitzpatrick as the principal engineering and construction firm for the new Gosforth Depot, and many of the new facilities planned for Gosforth Depot were made public.[13][14] VolkerFitzpatrick subsequently appointed a number of other local firms for the project, including Arcadis for design,[15] Thompsons of Prudhoe for the demolition work, Consultive Solutions, Ryder Architects, CMS Architects, Advance365,[16] VolkerRail (a sister company of VolkerFitzpatrick), NG Bailey, PLS engineering, First in Rail, and A&M Electricals.[17]

By 24 February 2021, this work had started.[18][19] The demolition work was split into four parts, the first of which included three sections of depot sidings and an area of the main depot building. This first part started on the southeast end of the old depot on 8 March 2021[20] and was complete by 4 May 2021.[21] The construction work was split into five stages, the first of which was completed by 1 November 2021[22] and resulted in roads 14-17 being opened for stabling by 24 November 2021.[23] The second stage was completed and the third stage started by 22 June 2022.[24] By 23 November 2022, Stadler had started moving its workforce into the new Gosforth Depot building,[25] which was fully completed by 8 December 2022.[26] The old building closed its doors entirely on 19 January 2023.[27] The final demolition work was completed by 17 July 2023.[28] The new Gosforth Depot was completed by 24 January 2024.[17]

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The train wash was completed separately by 7 March 2025.[29]

Sources

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  1. ↑ "Stadler officially takes over Metro fleet maintenance and Gosforth depot" (archived). Nexus. 4 October 2020.
  2. ↑ Stade, Christian (October 2025). "Newcastle Upon Tyne Gleisplan" [Newcastle Upon Tyne Trackmap] (archived). Gleisplanweb.de.
  3. ↑ "Gosforth depot" (accessed 20 April 2026). VolkerFitzpatrick.
  4. ↑ "Multi-million pound control suite opens at new Gosforth Metro depot" (accessed 20 April 2026). Nexus. 29 June 2023.
  5. ↑ "The NER Tyneside Electric Multiple Units" (archived). The London & North Eastern Railway Encyclopedia.
  6. ↑ Mackay, Stuart. "South Gosforth" (archived). RAILCAR.co.uk.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Feature: The Tyne and Wear Metro train fleet at 40" (archived). Nexus. 1 October 2020.
  8. ↑ Turner, John (12 May 1979). "12/05/1979 - South Gosforth." (archived). Flickr.
  9. ↑ "Bold ambitions for Metro and local rail services" (archived). Nexus. 19 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Bidders invited to design and build a new Metro fleet" (accessed 20 April 2026). Nexus. 8 June 2018.
  11. ↑ "Nexus wins approval to build a temporary Metro depot in North Tyneside" (archived). Nexus. 27 November 2018.
  12. ↑ "Nexus unveils £362m new Tyne and Wear Metro trains" (archived). Nexus. 28 January 2020.
  13. ↑ "Firm appointed to build Metro's £70m new train depot" (archived). Nexus. 15 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "Stadler appoints VolkerFitzpatrick to build Gosforth depot" (archived). VolkerFitzpatrick. 16 June 2020.
  15. ↑ "Developing a state-of-the-art train depot for Tyne and Wear Metro" (archived). Arcadis.
  16. ↑ "Local contractor is appointed to demolish Gosforth Metro depot" (archived). Nexus. 19 January 2021.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Metro’s new £70m Gosforth Depot is successfully completed" (accessed 21 April 2026). Nexus. 24 January 2024.
  18. ↑ "Work starts on the Tyne and Wear Metro’s new train depot" (archived). Nexus. 24 February 2021.
  19. ↑ "Work starts on the Tyne and Wear Metro’s new train depot" (archived). VolkerFitzpatrick. 24 February 2021.
  20. ↑ "Demolition work gets underway on the Tyne and Wear Metro’s train depot" (archived). Nexus. 12 March 2021.
  21. ↑ "First phase of depot demolition work is completed" (archived). Nexus. 4 May 2021.
  22. ↑ "Metro depot’s new train stabling area is completed and energised" (accessed 21 April 2026). Nexus. 1 November 2021.
  23. ↑ "Stadler completes the first phase of £70m Metro depot rebuild" (accessed 21 April 2026). Nexus. 24 November 2021.
  24. ↑ "Work continues on the new state-of-the-art depot for new Tyne and Wear Metro" (archived). VolkerFitzpatrick. 22 June 2022.
  25. ↑ "Stadler starts moving into the new £70m Gosforth Metro depot" (accessed 21 April 2026). Nexus. 23 November 2022.
  26. ↑ "VolkerFitzpatrick completes main building at Gosforth depot" (archived). VolkerFitzpatrick. 8 December 2022.
  27. ↑ White, Chloe (20 January 2023). "Old Gosforth Metro depot closure marks the end of an era for the Tyne and Wear Metro" (archived)
  28. ↑ "Final demolition work is completed at the former Gosforth Metro depot" (accessed 21 April 2026). Nexus. 17 July 2023.
  29. ↑ "New carriage wash is up and running at Gosforth Metro Depot" (accessed 21 April 2026). Nexus. 7 March 2025.
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