Metro and its partners Yorkshire Forward and Northern Rail picked up the ‘Outstanding Teamwork' Award at last night’s National Rail Awards Ceremony in London for their work to introduce six additional train units for West Yorkshire services.

“I am delighted that Metro and its partners Yorkshire Forward and Northern Rail have received this award for Outstanding Teamwork,” said Metro Chairman Cllr Ryk Downes. “Metro is committed to putting the passenger first, and this award is recognition that partnership working can and does have a positive effect on the running of the network. This project has brought significant benefits to our rail passengers in West Yorkshire.”

A £20m partnership between Metro, Yorkshire Forward and train operator Northern in December, saw passengers on the MetroTrain network and beyond benefiting from almost 1,700 additional seats on peak-time trains services into and out of Leeds. The additional trains have provided extra capacity on busy peak-time services from York and Harrogate via Horsforth and from Halifax and Bradford on the Caldervale Line. Services into and out of Leeds from Huddersfield, Knottingley, Selby and Sheffield have also benefited.

Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward said: "When the hard work paid off and the extra trains went into service, there was a collective sigh of relief from the region’s commuters, and a feeling of a job well done from the partners. The icing on the cake has been the national recognition by the industry body of what has been achieved through true partnership working."

Heidi Mottram, Managing Director, Northern Rail said: “To win the outstanding teamwork award is a great achievement and fantastic recognition of the hard work of everyone at Northern Rail and our partners.”

Cllr Downes concluded: “This latest award follows on from our success at the National Transport Awards in July when we received the ‘Partnership Award’ for this project. It is an excellent achievement confirmed by the judges comments who said our entry ‘stood head and shoulders above the others and is a worthy winner because it demonstrates how teamwork can solve the apparently insolvable”.