 Nexus, the owner of the Tyne and Wear Metro, is to invite leading companies in rail industry to Newcastle on 9 September 2008 to find out more about its £350 million modernisation programme for Metro. At the heart of the ‘Metro: All Change’ programme is the market-testing of the operations side of the business, which carried more than 40 million passengers last year. The ‘Market Update’ day at St James Park football ground in Newcastle will allow potential bidders for the 7-9 year concession to find out more about the process. Companies in the engineering, infrastructure and ticketing sectors are also invited to hear about potential opportunities within Nexus’s £350 million capital investment programme over the next 10 years. Bernard Garner, Director General of Nexus, said: “Metro: All Change is one of the most significant rail projects outside London and offers big opportunities for the industry – most of all in winning the 7-9 year operations concessions. “We are openly market-testing a unique business model in a way that hasn’t been since the very first round of rail franchises. This is a business which is currently still in the public sector.” Tyne and Wear Metro, opened in 1980, is the last railway in England entirely owned and operated within the public sector. Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, is to retain control of the infrastructure side of the business and let contracts within an ambitious £350 million modernisation programme. This includes new communications systems, a comprehensive modernisation plan for 45 stations and wide-ranging overhaul of overhead lines, track and structures on the 56km network. Nexus will let the operations franchise to run about 450 individual train services per day, including within it fleet maintenance and responsibility for a complete refurbishment of all 90 Metrocars. The value of the concession over nine years has been estimated externally at between £200-£300 million. The concession will begin operation in April 2010, after Nexus secured a funding commitment from Government covering both the capital and revenue sides of its business plan. The Market Update event will see Nexus set out a timescale for the tendering process and reveal more details about the concession. More than 100 companies within the rail industry have been invited and Nexus is expecting a strong response. Full details of the Market Update event can be found here.
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