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What’s being announced today?
The Government has announced a commitment to investing over £300m in the renewal and modernisation of life-expired parts of Metro and, in addition, to supporting the continued operation of the system for the next nine years, starting in April 2010. This is great news for the whole region. It is the biggest financial deal for Metro since it opened in 1980 and means the network’s future is secure. As well as the money needed to continue to operate an excellent day-to-day service we can tackle a backlog of maintenance work and modernise vital parts of the Metro to meet today’s high public expectation. This is essential if we are to encourage people to choose the sustainable option of public transport over car. Why does Metro need this much public money?
Metro is vital to the economic and social life of North East England. More than 40 million passengers use it every year to commute, travel to school, go to the doctors, and for leisure. Metro means people can travel further, making the whole economy more flexible and dynamic – without Metro 10,000 fewer people would travel into Newcastle City Centre every day, damaging businesses there. It also relieves congestion, taking 15 million car journeys off our crowded roads every year. What will the money be spent on?
The Tyne and Wear PTA and Nexus has ambitious plans to modernise the current system – completely refurbishing trains and investing about £60 million into refurbishing older stations to make them brighter, safer, more comfortable places to wait. A large part of the money will go towards modernising ‘behind the scenes’ items such as our communications, overhead power lines and track to make sure Metro continues to offer a frequent, reliable service. Money will also be spent on maintenance and replacement of ageing lifts, escalators, bridges and tunnels. This deal lets us plan for the long term. We aren’t being given a single lump sum – the money will be paid year by year based on a detailed modernisation and maintenance programme agreed with Government. Will Nexus still own Metro?
Yes. All the assets of Metro will remain owned by the public, in the form of Nexus, including stations, track, technology and trains. Nexus will manage the modernisation and maintenance work over the years ahead. In order to establish best value for the taxpayer a concession will be offered for 7-9 years covering day-to-day Metro operation, including the refurbishment of trains and operation of trains and stations. The current in-house management team will have the opportunity to bid for this as well as the private sector. What will happen to fares and services?
This deal is new money from the government so it will have no impact on fares with Nexus continuing to decide prices, as before. Metro is one of the UK’s best value railways, with an annual all-zone MetroSaver just £425, equivalent to £1.20 a day for unlimited travel. There is always pressure on fares as costs rise but this deal makes no difference to how fares are set in the future. The same is true of the timetable. Metro offers a regular service from 5am to beyond midnight and Nexus will specify its requirements in future. This deal with Government provides an operating subsidy for Metro over and above what we make in passenger fares. We will demonstrate Metro runs as cost-effectively as possible for the taxpayer, while passengers get the best possible service in the years ahead. Can we expect disruption to the services?
As explained, this new funding will not impact on passenger fares and so there will no less money available, which will ensure we keep regular and reliable services running. Inevitably, as with any comprehensive and overdue renovation of public transport networks there will be some disruption to some of our services but this will be kept to a minimum. Metro seems to work very well. Is the money really needed?
Metro is one of the best performing railways in the UK both in terms of punctuality and reliability. We must modernise our ageing trains and stations to give our passengers the very best. Much of our infrastructure, such as escalators, is reaching the end of its working lives with many parts up to thirty years old. Some tunnels and bridges actually go back 150 years. Our trains have all travelled more than two million kilometres in their working lives, since being built in the 1970s. Unless we take good care of these assets we won’t be able to maintain and raise the high standards we have set ourselves. Hasn’t Metro Re-invigoration already started? There’s a lot of building work going on at the moment?
Yes, but this new government funding is for Phases 2 and 3. We are already investing £50 million in Metro as part of Phase 1 of Re-invigoration. That includes £15 million on new ticket machines and barriers at stations, the £20 million rebuilding of Haymarket, £6.9 million refurbishment of Sunderland station platforms, a 400-space car park at Northumberland Park and the new £3.2 million Simonside station, which opened in March with support from the European Regional Development Fund. This is just the beginning of an exciting modernisation project that will spread across the whole network in the years ahead. Will there be extensions to Metro?
Our first priority is making sure Metro is fit for the future, and we have succeeded in that. Metro Re-invigoration is about investing in the existing network, and further funding will be sought for major upgrades of busy stations at South Shields, North Shields and Heworth, more park and ride and a possible new station in the Hebburn area. We also want to ‘dual’ the track right through to South Shields to improve the service. That fact we’ve secured Metro’s future means the path may be open to discuss further possible extensions, and to plan its place within a better bus network for Tyne and Wear.
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