Meet "Metro Joe" - The TV weatherman who swapped Cayman Islands for Tyne and Wear Metro

  • Watch Tom Barton's report here

If you want the ideal training to make tannoy announcements on the Metro, try spending 20 years as a weatherman and TV reporter.

Joe Avary reported the news and interviewed famous faces in his native United States and then in the pacific paradise of the Cayman Islands.

Now, he is putting his skills to work in a different way, greeting passengers at stations around the Tyne and Wear Metro network.

Joe insists he has no regrets leaving the pacific coast for the North East. Credit: Nexus

"When I was a journalist, I thought of that as a customer service job. The viewer would be my customer," Mr Avary said. "So I was in the mindset of thinking like, how am I going to give the viewer a good value with my reports today? I bring the same tenacity to working on the gate line here. It's just a lot of personality friendly hello. And I get a lot of smiles and positive feedback."

His wife is from Jarrow, so the couple decided to move to the North East and Mr Avary to make a career change, to become part of the Metro team.

“People don’t believe me, but it’s been a great experience.” he said. “It was a big change leaving the Cayman Islands, for sure, but I am really loving it here. The people are great. I just need to get used to the Geordie accent a bit more. As an American some of the local phrases are still hard to get.”

Since joining the Metro he has proved a big hit with customers and colleagues alike.

David Punton from Nexus, the Metro's operator, said: "It's not often you get a weatherman from the Cayman Islands coming in. It's a bit of a first for us and he's a bit of a character We all love him, and I think the customers do too. So long may that continue."

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