Howdon depot is a light rail facility used by the Tyne and Wear Metro in Howdon, Tyne and Wear, England. The depot was built as a satellite depot of

South Gosforth depot South Gosforth is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the suburb of Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 11 August 1980, following the opening of the first phase of the network, between Haymarket a ...

, which is being refurbished between 2020 and 2024. Construction on Howdon Depot completed in August 2020, with the first train entering in November 2020. The original intention was for Howdon to be a temporary depot, but future upgrades to the

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

line, may mean the depot becomes permanent.

History

Howdon depot was built on a former landfill site in Howdon, North Tyneside. The new depot was built as part of a £362 million package which includes a new fleet of metrocars which will be partly commissioned at Howdon. The new depot has the capacity to house 25% of the current metrocar fleet, which allows for a continuing service whilst the main depot at South Gosforth is upgraded. Although the groundbreaking ceremony was in June 2019, the main construction phase on the facility was started in late 2019, with opening expected in July 2020, though this slipped until October 2020, when work at Gosforth depot started. The depot, which is built on the former Riverside Branch (closed in 1973 and converted into a landfill site at Howdon) is equipped with ten storage roads. Howdon is to be capable of accepting, and assembling, the new fleet (to be built by Stadler), although this work could also be concentrated at South Gosforth, or shared between the two sites. Howdon has a maintenance shed with a single road and a pit underneath, and one shunt road adjacent to the mainline. The depot at Howdon was conceived as a temporary solution whilst South Gosforth is upgraded. However, Nexus received £100 million from the UK Government as part of its Transforming Cities Fund in 2020, which will go to the Metro Flow project. If approved, this will mean the doubling of many single sections of track on the South Shields line and at

Pelaw Pelaw () is a residential area in Gateshead, located around from Newcastle upon Tyne, from Sunderland, and from Durham. In 2011, Census data for the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council ward of ''Heworth and Pelaw'' recorded a total populatio ...

, Hebburn,

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

and

Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne ...

stations. If this does occur, then the depot at Howdon will become permanent.

References

External links

* {{Tyne and Wear Metro network Railway depots in England Transport infrastructure completed in 2020 Tyne and Wear Metro 2020 establishments in England