Nexus, which owns, manages and is modernising the Tyne and Wear Metro, has scooped two prizes at the prestigious UK Rail Business Awards in London.
Nexus won in the station excellence category for the £20m Haymarket redevelopment in the centre of Newcastle and in the PR category for the campaign to win all-party support for the £385m Metro: all change modernisation programme.
Nexus were also finalists in the Internal Communications category for the Be up-to-date programme surrounding the bid process for the Metro operating concession and mobilisation of the new contract, which was awarded to DB Regio.
The UK Rail Business Awards attract entries from right across the railway industry and the competition is always of a very high standard.
Nexus were up against rail companies from across the country at the ceremony, which was held at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in London on Thursday 17 February.
In the station excellence category the Haymarket Metro station project faced a strong field of entries that included the £800m redevelopment of London’s St Pancras station.
Director General of Nexus, Bernard Garner, said: “These two prestigious awards are deserved recognition of our ongoing efforts to modernise the Metro system and give it a world class future.
“We were up against some of the very best firms in the railway industry and we came out on top. I’m very pleased we won and it was a great honour to collect the awards on behalf of everyone at Nexus.
“The Haymarket redevelopment in Newcastle is a fantastic landmark at a major city centre gateway. The building looks great and I’m not at all surprised it caught the judges’ eye.
“Our campaign to win support for the Metro all change modernisation programme was first class from start to finish. An enormous amount of effort went into securing the funding from Government.”
The picture with this story shows a visit by then shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers MP to Metro in Sunderland in 2007.