Emergency services were called to the two-storey multi-use warehouse late last night and around 70 people were evacuated from their homes.

Around 70 people were evacuated from their homes overnight as firefighters tackled a fire which broke out in a warehouse. Emergency services were called to the scene on Oxgate Lane in the Brent area of London shortly before 9.15pm on Thursday, June 11.

At its height, 25 fire engines and 150 firefighters were involved in fighting back the flames. People living nearby had been advised to keep doors and windows closed as a result of a significant amount of smoke from the fire.

Crews from Hendon, Willesden, West Hampstead and surrounding fire stations responded after more than 85 calls reported the fire, reports the Mirror. Edgware Road was closed between the junctions of Dollis Hill and Staples Corner, with Oxgate Lane shut to traffic.

The cause of the fire is not yet known but an investigation is underway. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) confirmed the blaze was brought under control early this morning.

An LFB spokesperson said: “Twenty-five fire engines and around 150 firefighters responded to a fire on Oxgate Lane, Brent. The fire was located on a business park, and involved a multi-use warehouse building consisting of two floors.

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“At the fires height, the majority of the structure and its roof was alight. Around 70 people from a neighbouring residential block were evacuated as a precaution whilst firefighting operations were carried out.

“There are no reports of any injuries at this time. Residents in the local area had been advised to keep doors and windows closed where possible.

“This was due to the significant amount of smoke being produced by the fire. Four of the Brigade’s turntable ladders deployed to the scene as part of the response, tackling the fire from height.

A High Volume Pump and a Hose Layer were used by crews to increase the amount of water available to fight the fire. The Brigade received the first of over 85 calls reporting the fire at 9.14pm (Thursday, June 11). Control Officers mobilised crews from Hendon, Willesden, West Hampstead and surrounding fire stations to the scene.

“Firefighters were able to contain and bring the fire under control by 5.02am (Friday, June 12). The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Brigade’s Fire Investigation Team.”

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Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are all pursuing targets with the transfer window fast approaching. With the World Cup now officially underway, some deals might be delayed, though there are examples of nations willing to help facilitate move as long as certain conditions are met. Arsenal, expected to bolster in attack this summer, are in talks for wonderkid Jeremy Monga and are said to hold an interest in Morgan Rogers, Eli Junior Kroupi, Nico Williams and Julian Alvarez.

The young person was stuck on top of the ramp at Norton skate park, near Malton, at 9pm on Thursday (June 11).

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said its crew from Malton used a triple extension ladder to bring the youth down from the ramp.

In a statement, the fire service said: “Crew from Malton assisted a young person who had become stuck on top of a skate ramp.

“Crew used a triple extension ladder to assist the youth back to ground level.”

From election debates to job interviews, language shapes our perceptions of how trustworthy other people are. This power can be used to build healthy relationships, but it can also be used to manipulate and deceive.

To better understand this darker side of building trust, my colleagues and I turned to the corporate world – a domain that offers plenty of cautionary tales. Our case study was among the most notorious, involving one of the world’s largest energy companies of the 1980s and 90s: Enron.

This Texas-based company went bankrupt in 2001 after it emerged it had been systematically falsifying its financial records on a massive scale. Its West Power division manipulated California’s electricity markets by exploiting flaws in the state’s newly deregulated system, boosting profits while triggering one of the worst energy crises in US history by creating artificial power shortages.

To manipulate the markets, Enron traders had to win – then keep – the trust of partners, clients and regulators. Subsequent US federal investigations led to the release of more than 500 of their telephone calls in 2005.

These conversations have offered our team of linguistic experts a rich source for analysing the tactics traders used to build and retain confidence in their criminal strategies.

The trust playbook

Our research combined discourse analysis (a forensically detailed breakdown of the language used and how it was delivered) with behavioural science insights to establish the Enron traders’ “trust playbook”. This, we found, comprised four steps.

1. Foster ideological alignment

Among close business partners, the Enron traders relied heavily on verbal bonding to build emotional connections. This was all about intense, emotive language including frequent swearing – locker-room talk, essentially (most conversations involved male traders only).

Regulators were often dismissed as “stupid”, “crazy” and full of “bullshit” to help cement bonds between participants while reinforcing their shared ideological stance.

This kind of language can be a powerful trust-building tool because it fosters what psychologists call identification-based trust – the highest level of interpersonal trust, rooted in emotional attunement and shared purpose.

This bonded Enron traders and their accomplices into a tight in-group with its own moral logic of: “We understand the market; they just want to stifle business.”

Inside Enron, the overt flaunting and celebration of success may also have helped override any individual moral concerns, by recasting questionable actions as innovative and market leading.

2. Be competent, credible – and benevolent

For the Enron scandal to succeed at such scale, traders needed to persuade clients and partners that they would deliver on their promises and weren’t trying to take advantage of them. To do this, they leaned heavily on energy-trading jargon to showcase their expertise and credibility.

This elicited what psychologists call competence-based trust – the sense not only that they knew what they were doing, but that they knew valuable information their partners and clients did not.

This encouraged clients and partners who were unaware of the manipulation, but whose cooperation made it possible, to go along with market moves that were later ruled unlawful.

But another important part of the playbook was benevolence – emphasising the opportunity and mutual benefit for their partners and clients. “We don’t win unless you guys win. And that’s good for you guys too.”

According to an influential 1995 study, organisational trustworthiness comprises three essential qualities: ability, integrity and benevolence – the degree of care and positive intention the recipient feels. Our analysis shows these qualities can be constructed through language to mould relationships in your favour.

3. Confide in close partners

Of all the ways we use language to build trust, confiding is probably the most powerful. It requires someone to not only demonstrate trust by sharing a secret, but consolidate it by signalling they believe the other person will keep that secret.

In the Enron case, this was information that would damage reputations, or worse, expose traders to legal consequences. Each disclosure deepened the bond of secrecy between Enron traders and their accomplices, creating feelings of mutual vulnerability while quietly normalising the wrongdoing.

The traders even developed a set of playful nicknames for their unlawful tactics, including “Death Star”, “Fat Boy” and “Get Shorty”. Members of the inner circle spent a lot of time discussing these schemes, coordinating their next moves, and celebrating the millions they were raking in.

4. Repair trust to deflect suspicion

When trust was damaged or at risk, the traders showed interesting language techniques to try to repair it. For example, metapragmatic expressions – which comment on the speaker’s own words – were used to highlight transparency: phrases like “I’ll be honest with you” or “To tell you the truth”.

If that failed, traders went on the defensive: denying (“We didn’t do anything wrong – we weren’t going to manipulate anything”); shifting blame (“They changed the rules on us in the middle of the game”); and making excuses (“Well, guess what: your pricing mechanisms encourages people to take it out of the state”).

These strategies aimed to preserve trust by eliciting the benefit of the doubt. A favourite technique was reframing: recasting suspicious events as routine and unremarkable.

This is a powerful trust-repair tool because it lets the speaker concede the facts while disputing what they mean. By shifting the dispute on to technical ground, the traders moved it away from questions of honesty to questions of expertise, where they felt they still had more room to manoeuvre.

Of course, these kinds of techniques are not unique to the Enron traders. The same strategies run through all kinds of persuasive and manipulative discourse – from social media influencers to online scammers and AI advice chatbots.

Which makes learning to read the language of trust – and how it can be abused – more important than ever.

The event is for the DWP Secretary Pat McFadden to learn how the Dutch tackle the NEETS crisis, an announcement set to be overshadowed before it’s even happened

In a youth hub in the Netherlands, students are enjoying salmon rillet, and duck in apple sauce.

The event is for the DWP Secretary Pat McFadden to learn how the Dutch tackle the NEETS crisis, an announcement set to be overshadowed before it’s even happened, because the Defence Secretary John Healey has resigned.

There are cheers while Mr McFadden pulls a pint, after a member of staff shows him how, not knowing within minutes Britain will have lost the man responsible for defence, as war rages on in Ukraine and Iran.

Mr McFadden pours. The DWP minister is here to announce almost 180 new youth hubs and discuss the benefits of vocational training, on a trip that will almost certainly fail to register with voters as Keir Starmer ’s Government struggles to stay afloat.

At the time Mr Healey is accusing the PM of being unable and the Treasury unwilling to commit the resources the nation needs, his cabinet colleague is being briefed by officials for his interview with journalists, expecting questions on NEETs, welfare, and the prospects of Andy Burnham.

OPINION

Instead, he faces questions over the PM’s leadership, with Mr Starmer suffering another resignation just weeks after Wes Streeting quit as Health Secretary.

The news breaks while journalists wait in the main room. “John Healey has resigned”, a political journalist announces. As three hacks glue themselves to their phones, another, coming back with a chocolate mousse in an edible plant pot asks what has happened. “The Defence Secretary has resigned”, they repeat, a comment which sparks a nearby civil servant to sprint away from us, realising the minister will now be facing very different questions.

Arriving in the room, the minister jokes about the big issue he wants to talk about. “I think my pint was poured better than his”. He tells hacks he’s not seen the letter, praises Mr Healey, but disputes his suggestion that Mr Starmer isn’t able to boost defence.

Mr McFadden had arrived in the Netherlands to discuss the response to a crisis. As he returns to Britain, the Government faces yet another.

The World Cup began with Mexico vs South Africa, and South Korea vs the Czech Republic, but it was the latter where FIFA may be feeling worried about the tournament

The FIFA World Cup kicked off on Thursday with a sight it had desperately wanted to avoid. Noticeable patches of empty seats materialised in stadiums on the opening day of competition.

It appears the ramifications of the governing body’s contentious World Cup ticketing approach became instantly visible to a worldwide television audience. Earlier in the day, greedy FOX breached a FIFA regulation in the tournament’s opening game.

The second fixture of the tournament, South Korea versus Czechia at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, provided the starkest early indication of the issue. Vacant sections were plainly visible throughout the match, particularly in the VIP zones and sections opposite the primary camera.

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It followed controversy that erupted in the very first game. It was an image that FIFA had devoted months and millions attempting to avoid.

As recently as early June, the governing body discreetly reduced prices across all 104 matches and released 70 per cent of its bulk-reserved hotel rooms in what seemed to be an eleventh-hour attempt to fill seats, reports the Mirror US.

It proved insufficient. As of the eve of the tournament, roughly 180,000 tickets remained listed across FIFA’s official resale platforms. Around 15,000 group-stage tickets were still obtainable directly through FIFA’s website.

For the United States‘ opening fixture against Paraguay on 12 June, one of the tournament’s most eagerly awaited matches, more than 4,400 seats remained unsold through official channels. The cheapest tickets still commanding $1,120 directly from FIFA and the median resale price sitting above $800 even following a 20 per cent drop in prices over the previous month.

The roots of the crisis lie firmly with FIFA’s decision to adopt variable pricing, a model it has distinguished from “dynamic pricing” largely as a matter of semantics, for the first time at a World Cup. Prices for 90 of the 104 matches climbed by an average of 34 per cent between October 2025 and April 2026. The cheapest standard ticket to the final reached $5,785.

The priciest seats hit $10,990 before later tripling once more. Final tickets on the resale market were at one stage listed at close to $33,000. When the United States, Canada and Mexico submitted their original hosting bid, a seat at the final was pledged at a maximum of $1,550.

Every World Cup 2026 nation profiled: Your ultimate 48-team guide

The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey launched a formal investigation into the pricing practices, issuing subpoenas to FIFA. Congressional figures called for Gianni Infantino to appear before Congress. A day before the tournament got underway, Infantino defended the pricing by arguing cheaper tickets would have been resold on the black market.

The empty seats on day one are the most damning response yet to that claim. FIFA boasted in January that its ticketing website had received more than 500 million booking requests. Yet judging by Thursday’s opening matches, demand at the prices FIFA had set was markedly lower.

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I had gone out with three friends for tapas in York and when we came to pay the bill we were told that someone had already covered the cost and they had already left the restaurant.

I want to thank him for such a kind and heart-warming act and let him know that we were really touched by his thoughtfulness and really appreciate it. Thank you again.

Eleanor Shiels

Name and address withheld

___

Labour’s waterways protest is baffling

It is the stuff of politics for politicians to join campaigns, I get that, but like many York residents I am struggling to understand the Labour council leader and several Labour councillors and our local Labour MP organising photo opportunities to protest against the state of our waterways.

The Labour party control all the levers of power: the city council, York’s two MPs, the regional mayor, and the national government. So who exactly are they protesting against?

There are solutions. Council planners could be requiring developers to stop storm water entering the drains and overwhelming sewage farms, a key cause of these increasingly frequent sewage spills in our rivers. National government could be obliging water companies to create new drains networks to separate rain water from domestic water and sewage waste.

Repeated calls at planning meetings for positive action to impose conditions on developers, from myself and others, have been ignored for years.

Instead of implementing solutions, a Labour-run council and a Labour York MP, both in power, protest against persons unknown. It’s weird. Could it be that protesting is easier than fixing things?

Christian Vassie

Blake Court

Wheldrake

York

___

Extra star to Sam’s chain: it’s TV soccer-free!

First, my commiserations to Mr D M Deamer from a fellow-sufferer. His lead letter on page 30 of June 8 Press, ‘Don’t shove World Cup down our throats’ resonates with me.

I too am a ‘football-free zone’.

Second, about the revered Sam Smith’s Brewery and Mr Tom Tavener (nice touch) who monitors their estate and comes up with some interesting findings (see Press, June 8 again, page 16, full-page feature titled, ‘Guide shows half of brewery’s pubs shut’).

If Mr Tavener ever decides to produce a hard-copy edition of his list, please make sure it has a loose-leaf binding. Appreciated. Extra star to the Sam’s chain; it’s TV soccer-free!

Derek Reed

Middlethorpe Drive

York

___

Is it no prune June?

No words for why this island of grass was ignored. Perhaps No Mow May didn’t clear it on the Grass Cutters Sat Nav!

Thought he’d gone for a break and would be back to finish the job. We can look forward to no Prune June in York’s parks.

Ruth Clarke

Heworth

___

We face serious unrest

Kemi Badenoch may not be everybody’s favourite politician but her attack on “wokery” will have resonated with millions of people irrespective of political loyalty. It is becoming obvious by the day that unless we have a drastic change in Government attitudes, together with civil servants and police chiefs, we are heading for serious unrest.

Peter Rickaby

Moat Way

Brayton

What do you think?

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If anyone can write a great breakup album, it’s Ben Gibbard. For almost 30 years, the Death Cab for Cutie frontman has channelled misery into such emotionally ruinous songs as 2003’s “Tiny Vessels”, with its cool and cruel detached lover, to “The Sound of Settling”, a lesson in unending, unrequited pining.

Today, though, Gibbard is reluctant to call the band’s new project a “divorce record”, despite the fact that, yes, it was written in the aftermath of his marriage ending. “Oftentimes those records are someone saying, ‘I’m going to bring this into the court of public opinion and tell my one-sided story about how this went down,’” he says. “You know the phrase, only a fool goes to court thinking the jury are bound to see it their way?”

Gibbard is the first to admit he’s played the fool before. “I’ve certainly taken that tactic before, when I was younger,” he says, citing 2015’s Kintsugi, written in the wake of his split from actor and musician Zooey Deschanel – to whom he was married for three years – as the most obvious example. “I’ve long since realised that painting yourself as the aggrieved narrator… well, there is a time and place for that, but at a certain moment in life, you’ve got to grow out of it.” Anyway, he adds wryly, “Does anyone really think the biggest pop star in the world is always the innocent bystander in their own life? I don’t think so.”

Nearing 50, Gibbard has grown out of it and then some. Released last week, the band’s 11th album, I Built You a Tower, opens with mellow, melancholic guitar and the line: “Please forgive me.” It’s as much a plea to himself as it is to the person he’s speaking to. Later, on the jittery “Punching the Flowers”, Gibbard sings of words “sharpened like axes” that a man swings around “blindly”. Lyrically, Gibbard appears ready to look inward, to hold his hands up and own his mistakes. It’s not you, it’s me, he seems to be saying. Or at the very least, it’s both of us.

The songs are no less potent for their maturity; age has given them a hard-won patina. Even after they aged out of it, Death Cab have always tuned into that high frequency of youth, when everything is either the end or the beginning of the world. The confessional lyricism and assured sound of their Grammy-nominated fifth studio album Plans, released in 2005, proved to be their breakthrough from the Pacific Northwest music scene. It was also the first record they released on a major label (Atlantic), and the first time they’d recorded outside of their hometown.

“I felt less comfortable in my own skin in the world,” Gibbard says of their cultural “peak”, a time when their music was inescapable thanks to relentless syncing by hit shows such as The OC, Grey’s Anatomy, and One Tree Hill. “Trying to go about my life the way I’d gone about it before, I felt that more people were staring at me in places I was not used to being stared at. It’s kind of a headf*** when you feel like your presence is a topic of conversation whereas before nobody gave a s***.” Increasingly, celebrity felt like anathema to Gibbard, both living his life, and later, making music.

Those feelings were amplified when he began dating Deschanel. Pre-New Girl but post-500 Days of Summer, she was considerably more famous than Gibbard, who had to adapt.

“Without going into detail, there were some scary people around, and that changed how I had to live my life,” he says. “I felt like I was living my life in public like a Secret Service agent.” When they went out on dates, Gibbard would locate the exits by second nature; he and Deschanel had code words for emergencies.

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That feeling of being surveilled 24/7 invariably had an impact on Gibbard’s songwriting: “When you’re with someone who’s recognisable, you start taking on some of that reticence as well. I found myself deferring to her level of reticence because, well, it was different for her than it was for me. I think I retreated as a writer as a result of that.”

We’re speaking over a video call, but Gibbard’s screen is dark. “I’m a pacer when I talk,” he explains, and I get the sense that he is more open because of it. The absence of video, though, does mean I have to rely on recent photographs to know that he is no longer sporting that age-old emo signifier: the side fringe. Instead, the hairs sweep up, optimistic and hopeful.

As we get older, we find new ways of coping. I Built You a Tower refers to Gibbard’s penchant for compartmentalisation, a process in which he assigns the memories and people in his life – whether wonderful or painful – a place in his psychological skyline. Death Cab, for example, looms large on the horizon, like a skyscraper. The tower was erected after his last marriage: “But sometimes the memories, the people, find their way out of the structures. You hear a song, or smell something, and all of a sudden you’re back in that time of your life,” he says. The album’s title track explores exactly this: “’Cause I needed you/ I needed you contained.”

But nothing stays contained for ever. His second divorce, from tour manager and photographer Rachel Demy, spilled over into a 2023 anniversary tour for both Death Cab and Gibbard’s other longtime band, Postal Service. In some ways, performing became a salve, he says. “To be back in my 26-year-old self, so to speak, for two hours a night, and play these songs from a very different time in my life…” Other times, the clashing of his two lives felt disorientating: “One moment you’re emailing with a lawyer, dealing with the ugly elements of divorce – I wouldn’t recommend it, of course – and then, all of a sudden, it’s time to go on stage.’”

It helped that everyone – from his bandmates to the crew – knew what was going on. “Everyone understood the pressure that was on me,” he says. “The timing of it was not ideal, but at the same time, there really couldn’t have been a better group of people to be around.”

In truth, playing anniversary shows is weird even without the divorce element, says Gibbard. Coming face-to-face with your 20-year-old self isn’t always flattering. But it can also be funny. “I’ll be listening to songs on the first record about some girl I dated for two months, and it’ll be like, ‘Oh my God! I can’t believe this happened!’ and then you get older and it’s like, yeah, s*** happens. Life is a series of s*** happening. That’s how life works.”

Gibbard sees the gulf between himself now and himself back then as a sign of emotional growth, reassurance that he isn’t the same mercenary lover who whined “you are beautiful but you don’t mean a thing to me” on “Tiny Vessels” more than 20 years ago. “The girl I wrote that song about… We laugh about it now,” he says. “ I just think, ‘Oh my God. I was really being such a little b**** about this.’”

On I Built You a Tower, he’s as candid as he was when the band first started. It’s their first release since going independent again – the original plan was one more album with Atlantic, until a personnel change prompted them to leave. “It was like an episode of Succession,” says Gibbard, recalling how former CEO Julie Greenwald left in 2024. “This nepo baby [Elliot Grainge, son of Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grange] was given the label,” he says critically. “We took one look at this guy’s picture and we were like, ‘This guy didn’t have a Transatlanticism phase in college. This guy didn’t rock with Plans. I think we can safely say that this isn’t our guy.” And so they left.

At Anti, Death Cab are in good company with fellow artists MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes, Slow Pulp, The Beths. “I mean, f***ing Tom Waits,” continues Gibbard. “It felt like the perfect place for us. We’re not being put out to pasture on a retirement label.”

He has no interest in giving in to the pull of Noughties nostalgia; beyond the lyrical evolutions, I Built You a Tower is expansive and diverse in sound, too. That said, he knows what it means to fans to hear their old stuff live, because he is a fan first and foremost himself. “What’s the point of playing a show if you’re not going to honour the connection that people have with that music?” he asks. It’s further evidence of how Gibbard has matured. He cares how the other side feels.

‘I Built You a Tower’ is out now via Anti

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has reportedly urged the club to sign one target after the departing Casemiro had a hand in advising the club’s transfer recruitment

Manchester United appear willing to continue taking counsel from their players as they look to bolster their squad this summer. Bruno Fernandes could be the next star to steer the club towards a signing, following in the footsteps of Casemiro’s recommendation.

Despite his imminent departure, Casemiro reportedly played a key role in nudging the club towards their £39million pursuit of Ederson. The Atalanta midfielder is expected to complete his switch to Old Trafford, though the deal has been held up after a late call-up to the World Cup 2026 with Brazil.

Casemiro, 34, is said to have pointed United in the direction of his international team-mate when suggesting a potential successor. Now Fernandes could also have a significant say in reshaping his own midfield this summer.

The Telegraph revealed in May that Bruno had urged the club to pursue his namesake, Mateus Fernandes. The Portugal star, who has not been included in his nation’s World Cup squad, is widely expected to depart West Ham following their Premier League relegation.

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Much like Casemiro, he has benefited from spending additional time alongside his compatriot on international duty. Reports suggest Fernandes has spoken glowingly of his namesake to United’s hierarchy and is keen to see the club secure his signature during the transfer window.

West Ham’s Fernandes, 21, has shone since first arriving in England with Southampton in 2024. The former Sporting CP prospect was subsequently snapped up by West Ham late in last summer’s transfer window for a fee understood to be just over £40m.

Well aware the Portuguese playmaker ranks among their most prized assets, the Hammers are determined to extract maximum profit from his sale. A figure of £80m has been mooted for the player, though his eventual transfer fee could fall considerably short of that.

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The Times has reported Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is also an admirer of the player and could mount his own bid for his signature. This could leave Bruno with an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.

When Declan Rice completed his £100m switch to the Emirates in 2023, it was reported Fernandes had wanted the England star at Old Trafford. He later confessed he was “really sad” that Rice opted for north London instead, and the Gunners would once again be considered formidable rivals in the race.

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Having just clinched their first Premier League title since 2004, Arsenal remain one of the most attractive destinations in world football. That is not to suggest United will be easily dismissed, however, particularly after Michael Carrick secured Champions League football for the coming season.

It’s conceivable the club did indeed heed Casemiro’s counsel by pressing ahead with their pursuit of Ederson. And the weeks ahead will reveal just how much weight they place on captain Fernandes’ opinion as they look to bring in his preferred transfer target.

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For 46 years, maintenance teams at the Metro depot in Gosforth have kept the distinctive trains running since they first began service in 1980.

The last remaining old carriages are close to being phased out completely, marking the end of an era for the network and the wider region.

Paul Patrick (Image: Nexus)

Paul Patrick, who began his career at the depot as an apprentice fitter in 1995 and is now head of region for Stadler, said: “The old trains have been great workhorses for so many years.

“They have been the life blood of our region, taking people to work, to appointments, and on nights out.

“Metro is the beating heart of the North East and not many other UK cities have a railway quite like it.

“The trains we are about to say goodbye to have pride of place in Metro’s story.

“I worked on them when I became an apprentice aged 16.

Ben Stafford & James Hind (Image: Nexus)

“It’s a bittersweet feeling to see them go. Everyone recognises they are life expired now.

“They have done their job.”

Known as the Metro Class 599s and initially promoted as the ‘supertram’, the carriages arrived in the region in 1975 and entered service on August 11, 1980, during the phased opening of the Metro system.

Since then, they have carried 1.7 billion customer journeys and travelled half a billion kilometres.

Their final journeys are scheduled to take place between June 22 and June 26.

Carlene and Gemma (Image: Nexus)

Carlene Tindale, a trainer and assessor who has worked at the depot since 2014, said: “They’re iconic trains.

“I joined when they were getting their three-quarter life refurbishment, so it’s sad to see them go, but we did really need new ones.

“There is a sense of emotion and pride they have managed to run for 46 years.

“Getting as far as they have is down to the expertise and commitment of everyone at the depot.

“The fact we have kept them going is something to be proud of.”

Adam Cairns (Image: Nexus)

Adam Cairns, production manager, said working on the trains had always brought a sense of satisfaction.

He said: “The fault finding and the repairs were something I’ve enjoyed.

“There was always great job satisfaction when we got one fixed.”

But in recent years, he said, the trains had become more difficult to maintain.

He said: “They’ve experienced more issues in recent years and parts have become hard to come by.

“That said, they have been great for the North East, and such a huge part of everyday life for so many years.”

Materials manager Gemma Bousfield, who started as a fitter 12 years ago, compared them to “looking after a fleet of really old cars.”

She said: “It was good old fashioned mechanical engineering with them trains.

“I’ll miss them, but they’ve definitely had their day.”

Eldon Tams (Image: Nexus)

Eldon Tams, depot controller, said: “It’s sad to see them go but we have to look to the future with the new trains.

“The old trains used to be really reliable but less so in recent years due to their age.

“The new trains are going to be much better for the passengers.”

James Hind, a commissioning and warranty support technician, said: “People here have worked on these trains their whole lives.

“We’re looking to the future with the new trains, but the old ones are iconic and everybody knows them.

“It’s sad to see them go, however, rolling out new trains is exciting and historic for the Metro.”