Tyne and Wear Metro line between Pelaw and South Shields reopens after three month closure

The line between South Shields and Pelaw has reopened after being closed for three months for the project. Credit: Nexus

A section of the Tyne and Wear Metro has fully reopened following the "biggest and longest" improvement works in the network's history.

The line between South Shields and Pelaw has been closed since September, and was originally due to reopen on 4 December but was hit with delays.

The £104m Metro Flow project included new tracks and signals along a 4.6km stretch on South Tyneside.

It also involved converting a freight line for Metro trains with both sharing the track in future.

It has been the longest and biggest single project Nexus has undertaken on the original Metro network since it was completed in 1984.

The 4.6m stretch of Metro track has been replaced and completely new overhead line and signalling installed to remove three sections of single-track between Pelaw and Bede Metro stations.

The improvement works are intended to make Metro trains more reliable and enable extra services to run, with passengers outside of the rail system's central areas expecting a train every 10 minutes rather than every 12.

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