TPS Welcomes UK Minister for Transport and Leader of the Gateshead Council

TPS Welcomes UK Minister for Transport and Leader of the Gateshead CouncilTPS Welcomes UK Minister for Transport and Leader of the Gateshead Council

Gateshead-based Turbo Power Systems Ltd (TPS) were honoured to welcome Chris Heaton-Harris, UK Minister of State for Transport and Counsellor Martin Gannon, Leader of Gateshead Council together with Nexus Managing Director Tobyn Hughes and Stadler Group CEO Thomas Ahlburg to their HQ on the Team Valley yesterday (27th January 2020).

The visit follows a prestigious ceremony held at Proto Space in Gateshead where Nexus announced that the Swiss train builder Stadler Rail as their fleet supplier for the new Tyne and Wear Metro in a landmark £362 million contract. The company will work with more than 30 new supply chain partners in the UK advanced manufacturing, technology and construction sectors, half of them in North East England, creating and securing hundreds of skilled jobs.

TPS have been supplying bespoke power conversion systems for rail for over 40 years and have established themselves as the supplier of choice to some of the biggest rolling stock manufacturers in the world. In this time, TPS have employed some of the finest specialist power electronics engineers in the country and are looking forward to having the opportunity to apply this expertise to a project with such profound local importance.

Carlos Neves, Chief Executive Officer of TPS said: “It’s not every day that Gateshead receives such a high-profile visit from esteemed members of Parliament and the rail industry, so we relished the opportunity to exhibit some of our innovative power conversion systems for rail. The Tyne and Wear Metro is a huge part of everyday life for people living in the North East, transporting over 36 million passengers every year and so ensuring that passengers have a reliable service will be a top priority for both Stadler Rail and Nexus. We are hopeful that we will have the opportunity to deploy our expertise to this project since we have a proven track record in supplying power conversion systems for many global rail projects. This project holds significant importance to TPS because it will greatly benefit our local community; we are a North East company, employing North East people who use the Tyne & Wear metro every day.”

The regeneration of the Tyne and Wear Metro has been a decade long project which began in 2010 and will be completed with the installation of a new fleet of Metros set to be operational by the end of 2024. The project has been supported throughout by the North East Combined Authority and the Local Enterprise Partnership.

Specially designed and built, the new trains will take Metro into the future with world-class reliability and comfort, much greater energy-efficiency and a full suite of modern carriage features and technology. It is a fundamental part of the economic and social life of North East England – taking 15 million car journeys off the region’s roads and helping town and city centres to thrive. New trains, the first of which are scheduled to be delivered from 2022, will provide decades of effective service to Metro and its passengers.