If you have travelled on the Tyne and Wear Metro today, you may have been caught in the delays as seven trains were out of action.

This afternoon, Tyne and Wear Metro wrote on X: ‘Trains are running to all destinations, however we have gaps in service on the yellow and green lines. Please leave extra time for travel this afternoon. We hope to have a more frequent service throughout the day.’

Nexus said: “Metro services have been affected by a series of train faults this morning, Tuesday 26 November.

“We’ve seen a total of seven Metro trains taken out of service due to failures. We are liaising with the Stadler team at Gosforth Depot on this.

“The faults mean that we are currently under the core weekday service, which requires 28 Metro trains to be running. The current Metro train is 45-year-old existing fleet and is operating beyond its lifespan.

“The ageing fleet is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and repair, exacerbated by a shortage of spare parts and cold weather. We remain focused on getting the best possible performance from our current trains while transition to the new fleet.

“We’re grateful to customers for their patience during this disruption and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“We are ensuring our customers are up to date with regular communication via station announcements and electronic display screens, our email travel alerts, Pop App alerts, on our website www.nexus.org.uk and via our X page (formerly Twitter) @My_Metro.”

The Metro manufacturer, Stadler, said: “Every effort is being made to get trains back on to the network, following the reduction in the number of units available for service this morning.

“Trains are being reintroduced over the course of the day, and we expect availability to continue to improve. At this stage, we are set to provide a full service by tomorrow morning.

“The Tyne and Wear Metro fleet is 45 years old and has come to the end of its natural life. We continue to work hard to provide the best service possible under challenging circumstances and look forward to the introduction of the new trains, which will dramatically improve the passenger experience.”

UPDATE 8.20PM – Tyne and Wear Metro say trains are running to all destinations, and they are operating a frequent service to all destinations on both the Yellow and Green lines. The gaps in service on both lines, was due to failed trains from earlier and a police incident recently at Felling. They advise those travelling to check beforehand using their app for updates.