The Tyne and Wear Metro turns 40!

The Tyne and Wear Metro is celebrating its 40th anniversary today!

The network was a regional icon which has become one of North East England’s most successful transport projects. 

Metro has carried 1.5 billion passengers over four decades of operations, and to mark the occasion, Nexus have released a virtual Metro depot tour, the launch of a new online Metro game, and the first original Metrocar 4001 as been painted in a special 40th anniversary colour scheme. 

Managing Director Transport North East, Tobyn Hughes, said: “We’re enormously proud that the Tyne and Wear Metro is celebrating its 40th year. What a fantastic success story for our region it has become. 

“I’m sure that August 11, 1980, is a day that will live long in the memory for those who were there, and since then Metro has become a part of everyday life for thousands of people, who rely on it to get to places of work, school, college, and for leisure activities. 

“The Covid-19 crisis has brought new challenges to us but I’m determined that we can now get back to business as lockdown lifts. My thanks go to our customers who travel with us every day, and our workforce, who do such an amazing job, day in, day out, to keep the trains running. Here’s to the next 40 years. “

Leader of Gateshead Council and Chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee, Cllr Martin Gannon, said: “I want to wish a very happy 40th anniversary to the Tyne and Wear Metro. 

“Every year Metro helps to take millions of cars off our roads. It helps to drive our local economy and it’s a much-loved mode of travel which has become iconic. It has undoubtedly helped to put our region on the map.” 

We spoke to one of the first ever Metro Drivers Ian Rossiter - he remembers some of the teething problems when the trains first got up and running -

Metro 40: timeline: 

1971: Studies reveal light rail is a solution to take pressure off Tyneside’s congested road network.

1972: Government agrees to fund the Tyne and Wear Metro project at a cost of £100m.

1974: Construction begins.

1980: Metro system opens to passengers – Haymarket to Tynemouth.

1981: The Queen officially opens the Tyne and Wear Metro as the line to Gateshead opens.

1984: South Shields line opens.

1991: Metro extension to Newcastle Airport is opened.

2002: The Queen opens the Sunderland line.

2009: Government agrees to fund £350m Metro modernisation programme.

2014: Metro train fleet refurbishments completed.

2020: Nexus orders a new fleet of trains to arrive by 2023. 

Tyne and Wear Metro in numbers: 

60 stations.77km of track.90 trains.3 visits by The Queen.20 hours a day Metro operates, 5am-1am.1.5 billion passengers have used Metro over its 40 years.34 million passengers a year use Metro (pre-Covid-19 stat.)10 million passengers a year use Monument Metro station.17,000 kilometres – the total distance the trains cover every day - the equivalent of Newcastle, England, to Newcastle in Australia.240,0000 – the number of times every Metro train door opens and shuts per year.100% of stations have step free access291 bridges, tunnels and other structures that Nexus manages on the network. 

Did you know? 

• When Metro first opened the minimum price for a ticket was just eight pence.

• Metro was the first rail system in the UK to have no smoking in carriages.

• Metro was the first underground system to have mobile phone connectivity in tunnels.

• Metro was the first railway in the country where every station had step free access for wheelchairs.

• ABBA were number 1 in the UK singles charts with ‘the winner takes it all’ in the week that Metro opened in 1980.