January 2020 Transport news roundup: New trains for Nexus Tyne and Wear Metro and the rise of electric buses for Europe!

First of all, due to the lack of articles during the last month, I’ve decided to feature most of this months transport news in one article.

Nexus has placed an order for new trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro in North East of England.

Extracts from Nexus

28 January 2020

Nexus today announced a chosen manufacturer for its contract to build new trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro, as part of a £362m investment which will transform performance and passenger experience, deliver huge energy savings and secure and create hundreds of jobs in the UK supply chain.

Tyne and Wear bus services to be operated by the council

Bus services in Tyne and Wear are to be controlled by the council as Councillors have backed plans for regulated services under the Quality Contracts Scheme.

In a move which could signal the biggest changes to the way buses operate across the region since de-regulation in the 1980s, members of the North East Combined Authority (neca) have today agreed to submit proposals for the introduction of a Quality Contracts Scheme (QCS) for consideration by a special independent panel. 

The north east is the first part of the country to reach this stage in developing a Quality Contracts Scheme under legislation introduced in 2000. The new scheme would see bus companies contracted to provide routes by Nexus on behalf of the North East Combined Authority, rather than the bus operators deciding which services to run on the basis of market forces.