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A QUARTER of a million extra journeys were made on Tyne and Wear Metro this week thanks to the phenomenal attraction and spectacle of the 2005 Tall Ships Race. And the free QuayLink shuttle buses, which linked Metro stations to the event, have proved a big hit with visitors to the Tall Ships Races with nearly 37,000 passengers using the service. The free public transport phone line Traveline also reported a bumper week with 8,000 calls in three days (massively up on a typical week). Metro operator Nexus says it is delighted that 250,000 more people used the system during the Tall Ships festival. Typically the same period in a normal week would see 100,000 journeys. Director General of Nexus, Mike Parker, said: The passenger journey figures prove that Metro really was the best and most effective means of getting into the centre of Newcastle and Gateshead from Sunday to Thursday. "I am delighted at the number of people who used our services during the Tall Ships. "In the run up to the festival our key message was for people to leave the car, and the traffic jams, behind and use public transport and many people did just that. "We had extra staff and extra trains laid on throughout festival to cope with the excess demand we expected there to be. "Our staff did a fantastic job in providing visitors with information at our city centre stations and were a credit to Nexus and to the whole of Tyne and Wear. "I was also pleased with new Quay Link bus service that was operated free of charge during the Tall Ships. It proved hugely popular and was vital for getting visitors from the centres of Newcastle and Gateshead down to the event." He added: "The Tall Ships festival has undoubtedly been a huge success for NewcastleGateshead and has brought millions of pounds into the region. "It has really helped to raise the North East’s profile and many of the thousands of visitors who came to the Tall Ships will have left with a positive image of Tyneside and what it has to offer."
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