Howdon Satellite Depot
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Howdon Satellite Depot (HSD) is a secondary depot for stabling the Tyne and Wear Metro fleet. It is capable of light maintenance, but does not have all the necessary maintenance facilities that the main depot, Gosforth Depot, has. It is situated along the Yellow Line, to the south, between Howdon and Percy Main stations.
Usage
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As well as stabling and light maintenance of Metro's passenger fleet, Howdon Depot also has an access point for removing trains from and delivering trains to the Metro network. It has been used for all metrocar disposals (except for 4022, which was disposed before Howdon Depot was built), and for delivering at least one road-rail vehicle (the rail grinder FJ20 FOD).
Layout
[edit | edit source]The depot is made up of ten stabling roads at the northeast, a maintenance shed for either a single Class 555 unit or a pair of metrocars at the southeast, some staff facilities including a control room attached to the south side of the shed, a headshunt at the northwest, and a road-rail access point ahead of the shed. The depot also has 1.2 acres of land to the west dedicated to dingy skippers.[1]
Dingy skipper habitat
[edit | edit source]Baseline ecological studies carried out in 2017 consistently recorded dingy skippers utilising open mosaic habitats that had established across the former landfill site. As a result, one of the conditions for building Howdon Depot was that a habitat was built for the dingy skippers which inhabited the site.[1]
An ecological impact assessment predicted that the original design for the new depot would retain approximately 0.4 hectares of the short perennial grassland used by the dingy skippers. A later design increased this figure to approximately 0.7 hectares. The unavoidable loss of dingy skipper habitat on the land was reduced from approximately 0.8 to 0.5 hectares. One of Nexus' consultants, Atkins, prepared an ecological mitigation strategy for the depot in 2019.[2]
The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management shortlisted Nexus, Atkins, Conops Entomology, and EcoNorth for a "Best Practice Award" in the "Small-Scale Project Mitigation, Compensation and Enhancement" category for the project. While they didn't win the award, they were assigned a "Highly Commended" status.[2] Atkins undertook surveys of the whole site and counted the butterflies, supporting the Butterfly Conservation's "Big Butterfly Count".[1]
Access
[edit | edit source]Howdon Depot is linked by rail to Howdon station via Howdon Depot Junction (HDJ). It can also be accessed from Percy Main station by turning around from a small staff-only platform before Howdon station.
On foot or road, the depot is accessed from a single entrance near the entrance of the southbound Tyne Tunnel.
History
[edit | edit source]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.[3] 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.[4] To stable some of the fleet while the new Gosforth Depot was being built, Nexus also ordered that a temporary second depot would be built on a former landfill site in Howdon,[5] funded as part of the £362 million fleet replacement.[6] This second depot was also originally intended to be the access point at which the new fleet would be delivered,[5] but this ended up being Pelaw Junction.
On 27 November 2018, Nexus won the approval of the plans to build Howdon Depot from North Tyneside Council’s planning committee,[5] under conditions that included building a habitat for the dingy skippers which inhabited the site.[1] On 11 July 2019, Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd began building Howdon Depot on behalf of Nexus.[7] Emeg Group Ltd were contracted as the mechanical and engineering services provider, which included providing points heating, lighting, telecoms, fire protection, gas supply, water supply, ventilation, drainage, heating, cooling, a building management system, and their "safeNet Depot Protection System".[8] Lithos Consulting Ltd were also asked to liaise with the planning committee and the Environment Agency, and develop a Materials Management Plan.[9]
By 11 October 2019, they had stripped off all the top soil and began levelling it off.[10] By 2 January 2020, the first new tracks were in place.[11] By 24 February 2020, a total of twelve new lines, 1.5 km of new track, 13 new track junctions, and 1,000 new sleepers had been installed.[12] By 21 July 2020, overhead lines and the shed were in place.[6]
On 16 November 2020, the first test trains, metrocars 4059+4072, entered the maintenance shed at Howdon Depot.[13] By 17 December 2020, the depot officially became operational.[14]
Sources
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Nexus creates a butterfly conservation project on Metro" (accessed 28 April 2026). Nexus. 28 July 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "CIEEM Awards 2021" (archived). www.cieem.net. Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. 22 October 2021. p. 21.
- ↑ "Bold ambitions for Metro and local rail services" (archived). Nexus. 19 July 2016.
- ↑ "Bidders invited to design and build a new Metro fleet" (accessed 20 April 2026). Nexus. 8 June 2018.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Nexus wins approval to build a temporary Metro depot in North Tyneside" (archived). Nexus. 27 November 2018.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Metro’s new train depot at Howdon nears completion" (archived). Nexus. 21 July 2020.
- ↑ "Work starts on a temporary Metro depot in North Tyneside" (archived). Nexus. 11 July 2019.
- ↑ "Howdon Satellite Depot" (archived). Emeg.
- ↑ "Howdon Metro Depot" (archived). Lithos Consulting.
- ↑ "Watch: Update on Metro's temporary depot project in North Tyneside" (archived). Nexus. 11 October 2019.
- ↑ "Temporary Metro depot takes shape in North Tyneside" (archived). Nexus. 2 January 2020.
- ↑ "New tracks for temporary Metro depot in North Tyneside" (accessed 28 April 2026). Nexus. 24 February 2020.
- ↑ Nexus (16 November 2020) "Howdon Depot welcomes first test train" (accessed 28 April 2026). YouTube.
- ↑ "Temporary Metro Depot becomes operational in North Tyneside" (archived). Nexus. 17 December 2020.
