Romance, scraps, and human waste: students remember the old metro trains

Passengers will have a chance to say their goodbyes to the iconic, old metro trains, before they are terminated at the end of this month.

According to Chronicle Live, one of the remaining original Class 599 metro carriages will run for the last time on both the yellow and green lines during  the week commencing Monday 22nd June.

Metro operator Nexus were ordered by North East mayor Kim McGuinness to have the old trains decommissioned by this summer. The major revamp to new models is nearing completion, with only six trains from the old fleet remaining available for service, replaced by a sleek £362 million fleet, built by Swiss manufacturer Stadler.

However, it marks a bittersweet moment. Although the old trains were increasingly unreliable, they’ve been depended upon by locals and students for more than four decades, and have had a significant cultural presence within the North East.

Nexus managing director Cathy Massarella said the trains “helped to change the face of public transport in our region” and that they’ve “developed this special timetable for the 599s to run in service throughout the week to ensure those that want one last journey can do so,” Chronicle Live reports.

North East mayor Kim McGuinness also said the final farewell to the old fleet would be a “really significant milestone for our region, one that I’ve no doubt will generate a lot of nostalgia and fond memories.”

Since the beginning of their service to the metro system in August 1980, they’ve accumulated 1.7 billion customer journeys across a combined half-a-billion kilometres.

In tribute to the 90 original Class 599 carriages, students sent us the most memorable moments they’ve had on the metro.

It turns out some people are walking into metro stations and confusing them for public toilets:

• “My mate pissing on the doors while they were closing”
• “A man peed on the seat opposite me. I haven’t sat down on a metro ever since…”
• “I nearly sat on a pissy seat a homeless man peed on”

Can nobody hold their bladder? No wonder the old ones were so dirty. Unfortunately, urine wasn’t the only excrement being left on the seats of the metro:

• “Pretty sure I saw a drunk guy shit his pants (it was 2pm on a Wednesday get it together guys)”

Human excrement aside, public transport is a classic choice for getting around when you’ve had a drink and can’t drive. As a result, it’s common to find a few drunk and disorderly members of the public on the metro that make for an evening of entertainment:

• “A drunk woman sitting on my friends lap and refusing to get up”

I guess it’s nice she found comfort in your friend, despite her intoxicated state.

After a crawl down Osbourne Road, while the alcohol begins to hit, the metro makes for a significant place to spot a social:

• “Every Wednesday night on a sports night social observing all the fresher challenges”
• “1 million medics”
• “Got on the train whilst a social was happening, it was filled with Despicable Me minions”

I don’t know what’s scarier — fresher initiations, or a metro full of medics or minions.

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Others have a poetic and poignant framing of their drunk nights on the metro:

• “The breeze of the metro going past is the only thing I remember from the races”

Did you know the metro could be a runaway? Classic diva behaviour spotted in the Toon:

• “A homeless man on the tracks in his dressing gown with an umbrella!”
• “Saw someone wearing an old curtain as a cape and meandered down the carriages”
• “Some bloke in a Corona costume running up the wrong way”

Mr Corona also wasn’t the only person going the wrong way:

• “Fell asleep battered on the last metro home, missed west Jes and got woken up at Jesmond”

While some slept soundly, finding peace on the metro, others channelled their inner Fight Club:

• “Two homeless men having a physical fight over toilet roll”
• “Two men fighting on Haymarket metro escalators whilst another guy stacked it at the same time”
• “Shoved a load of radgies out the way when they were blocking the door for people getting off”

There are also plenty of lovers that couldn’t get a room, so caught a metro instead:

• “Seeing a lass getting fingered after Radio 1 festival”
• “Saw a girl giving head to someone (traumatised after that)”

For some, though, relationships on the metro weren’t smooth sailing. Not using this iconic transport service is basically sacrilege in Newcastle, so it’s likely you’ll spot some familiar faces:

• “Seeing a guy I hooked up with while with another guy who I was about to do the same with”

It’s likely you’ll encounter some questionable strangers, too:

• “Getting followed home by someone”
• “Saw a man with a butterfly kids backpack… he had no kid”

Kim McGuinness said “it’s the end of an era for Metro, but it’s time we look ahead,” and that she wants “a better, cheaper, and more reliable transport network – one that works for everyone and makes it easier for local people to get to work, to school and out to socialise. That’s why we’ll continue to improve our Metro network, with an extension to Washington, a new signalling system and improvements to even more stations.”

Plus, this is not a final goodbye. According to Chronicle Live, the majority of the old trains are being broken down and recycled by a specialist scrapyard in Bishop Auckland, but two will be donated to local institutions — one to the Stephenson Steam Railway in North Tyneside, and another is understood by the Local Democracy Reporting Service to be going to an unnamed museum. This means the old trains can be visited, immortalising the importance they’ve had to the North East.

Also, according to Nexus, you may catch an occasional sighting of an old carriage after June 26th, so although the week beginning June 22nd is the last guaranteed time you have to travel on an original metro carriage, there’s still a chance you’ll step foot on one after that date.