Nexus says Metro door fault 'cannot happen again'

A problem with the doors on the Tyne and Wear Metro's new trains "cannot happen again", the network's operator has said.

The fleet of five new trains were taken out of service for more than a week after an issue was discovered which caused the doors to open onto the tracks.

Train operator Nexus said the fault was caused by a complex issue involving the door pre-select button but changes to the vehicle's software had fixed the problem.

Nexus's major projects director Paul Welford said the likelihood of a similar event happening again was "extremely low" but the new precautions would prevent it from happening again.

"The issue relates to the interface between operation of the doors by the Metro driver and the door request button on each set of doors," he said.

"These allow customers to pre-select a door opening prior to the driver actuating the doors."

The pre-select button allows a customer to select a door to open before the train enters the station.

Using the pre-select button did not cause the wrong door to open every time, but its use combined with "a series of unlikely events", including driver error, led to both sets of doors opening at the same time.

The problem only occurred once on 21 April at Simonside station.

"The incorrect operation of the train's doors highlighted some functionality we wanted to tweak, which is why we took the decision to temporarily pause the rollout of the new fleet while we worked with Stadler on a solution," Mr Welford said.

He said the software changes involved amending the trains' pre-select function and its "interface with the door operation by the driver".

Nexus's new fleet of trains began to be gradually reintroduced back into service on 30 April, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The company said the door issue was not expected to delay the rollout of 23 new trains before the end of this year.

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