Just seen 4073 going down, so presumably 4033 is at Hylton Street.
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Thats ridiculous considering Monument Mall is being rebuilt, now that that exit is no longer people leaving the station have to climb stairs or use a urine smellling tiny lift thats a canny walk from the barriers. The escolators and lifts were ideal for those with mobility issuies, gave a direct (and dry) access to TK Maxx & Fenwicks and offered clean, secure and glass lifts to street level making elderly people more secure when leaving the station. Progress eh?
Unfortunately that access isn't a public right of way, so they can do what they want. Not sure how long the refurbishment of Monument Mall will take, but it will reopen eventually.
ModernRailways said:
Talking to a depot worker today they never had plans not to refurb more than 3 units, there were plans for 3 not to go and those would be 4001 and 4002 to form a heritage unit and another unknown metrocar which will no doubt be one of those which is still suffering from flood damage.
There is talk that there would be about done in-house at Gosforth Depot, but they believe that they will continue to still be done at Doncaster.
Apparently, they expect all metrocar's to be refurbished by Summer 2014 and by Summer of this year a full service on the St James - South Shields line is expected to be run by the refurbished units - of course they won't be limited to that line, it was just a point that they would if they like run a full service.
They are still expecting the same amount to go down and be refurbished, and this new money is expected to be into the actual infrastructure of the system. Stations being updated with better facilities.
Just as a side note, but I was also told that they are discussing allowing bicycles on certain services once it is a full refurbished fleet. However, that is only an internal rumour and as such should be treated as false.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Has anyone got a list of how many Metro units are now refurbished or undergoing refurbishment? I have lost count and would appreciate it if one of you lovely people out there could enlighten me with this information. Thanks in advance.
