Help shape Metro’s Grand Design Published on: 10 October 2016 Â鶹´«Ã½ is leading a major project to help design the next generation of Metrocars for the Tyne and Wear Metro. People of the North East are being asked to help design the next generation of Metrocars as part of an ambitious £1 billion bid to upgrade the trains, infrastructure and signalling over the next 20 years. Nexus, which owns , is finalising a bid to the to help fund a new generation of trains plus associated infrastructure that will meet the needs of customers for decades to come. As part of this, Nexus have asked experts at to lead a series of events at which the public will be challenged to help design the Metrocars of the future. This will look at questions such as seating layouts, space for prams and wheelchairs and facilities such as wifi and passenger information. Involving people in the design of their transport system Running throughout November, the project will include pop-up labs at locations across Tyne and Wear, social media discussions, workshops and video diaries to record and share people’s experiences. The Â鶹´«Ã½ team – based in the University’s world-leading - will share the feedback from local people with train-building firms from around the world as Nexus seeks a supplier to build the first new Metrocars since 1980. , who is leading the project for Open Lab, explains: “We believe it’s the people who use Metro - and also those who don’t – who are best placed to tell us what works and what doesn’t. “For example, should there be somewhere for bags? What are the issues when travelling with prams or wheelchairs? How accessible is Metro for older people? “At Open Lab, instead of the traditional passenger survey we are interested in how modern technology such as mobiles, tablets and web-based tools can be used to give people a voice in how the future Metro should look. “By sharing experiences and imagining alternatives, we hope to discover how Metro is used now and how it might be used in forty years’ time. Our findings will be used to help Nexus commission a Metro that is right for the future.” 40 million passengers a year The Tyne and Wear Metro is the busiest urban rail system outside London, carrying 40 million passengers a year, and has used the same fleet of trains since it opened in 1980. Nexus is seeking to replace the Metrocar fleet as the central part of a £1 billion investment programme over the next two decades. A detailed business case for which is due to be presented to the Department for Transport before the end of the year. Tobyn Hughes, Managing Director of Nexus, said: “A new Metrocar fleet is essential to the future of Metro, and ranks as one of the most important projects we have led. “These new trains will be serving our communities for several decades so we want to involve local people as much as possible in the design process, thinking not just about how they might use trains now, but through their whole lives. “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Â鶹´«Ã½’s Open Lab who are bringing exciting new digital and social tools to improve public engagement.” Â鶹´«Ã½ City Futures The Metro Futures project is part of , a partnership led by Â鶹´«Ã½ which brings together businesses, academics, government, community organisations and the public to consider the challenges facing Â鶹´«Ã½ over the next 50 years. Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones, Director of Â鶹´«Ã½ City Futures, said: "Â鶹´«Ã½ City Futures is delighted to support Metro Futures as an innovative project for Tyneside. This initiative demonstrates the way citizens, businesses and the university can all work together to proactively shape the future of Â鶹´«Ã½ and its region." In addition to the Â鶹´«Ã½ research, Nexus is providing its own direct consultation on train layouts through its website, and has commissioned passenger group Transport Focus to carry out market research. As an investigation of citizen-led public service commissioning, Metro Futures fits within Open Lab’s broader digital civics research. For more information on how to get involved visit or pick up a leaflet from a Metro TravelShop. Share: Latest News Scientists unlock hidden driver of inflammatory bowel disease Scientists have linked a key genetic signal in inflammatory bowel disease to an immune response that shuts down inflammation control, enabling faster diagnosis and targeted treatments. published on: 15 June 2026 Funding system risks limiting genuine community collaboration A new policy paper written by researchers at Â鶹´«Ã½ warns that the way UK research is funded may be undermining efforts to create genuinely collaborative partnerships with communities. published on: 15 June 2026 Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from Â鶹´«Ã½ to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Facts and figures
![Â鶹´«Ã½ logo](/gomobileassets/img/logo.svg" "Â鶹´«Ã½"){kind=logo}