Tyne and Wear Metro has published the reflections of a train driver who worked on the network when it began operating in 1980.

Bill Dodds worked as a Metro driver for 34 years before retiring in 2014. He shared his reflections on the original Tyne and Wear Metro fleet of Class 599 trains as it is withdrawn from service and replaced by a new fleet of trains.

Nexus, which operates the Metro, is marking the retirement of the original fleet in various ways, including publishing home movies of the trains in action and sharing a rediscovered ticket from the early days.

Bill, who is 69 years old and lives in Newcastle, said that he is “emotional” to see the old trains being taken out of service, as he spent a third of a century driving them. In his view, the old fleet had been great, but has now done its job.

The trains were designed to operate for thirty years, but proved so reliable that they were able to continue for forty-six years, operating for twenty hours per day. During their decades of service, the trains carried 1.7 billion passenger journeys and travelled a distance of half a billion kilometres.  

Bill acknowledges the work that the trains have done in that time, “in all kinds of weather,  taking people to work and for nights out. Customers will have many fond memories, especially the view from the front seats, which was always so popular.”

Metro operator Nexus has confirmed that this is the final week in which passengers will have a guaranteed chance for people to travel on the old trains. They will run on the Metro’s Yellow and Green Lines between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm from Monday, 22 June until Friday, 26 June. The full timetable for the trains’ operation will be available on the Metro’s social media channels.

When Bill began driving the trains, he was 24 years old, significantly younger than a lot of the other drivers, who had driven trains for British Rail before taking up driving roles on the then-new Metro network. Some had driven steam trains as well as diesels.

“It was a big leap to go from that to electric light rail trains that were on Metro. They were great days. There were always new developments. Initially it was just Haymarket to Tynemouth, but then more lines opened in stages.

“The old trains have served Tyne and Wear very well. It’s also an exciting time for the future of Metro too, with the new trains coming into service. They’re more reliable and they can pave the way for future network extensions. I think there is a great future for the Metro system now.”

Retired Metro driver, Bill Dodds