- Good morning behind me is Bank Foot Station.
Yes, we're out in Newcastle,
to finally do Secrets of the Tyne & Wear Metro.
The Tyne & Wear Metro, is a rapid transit light rail system
that serves Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Gateshead, North and South Tyneside and Sunderland.
The network is a mixture of new track and stations
using old British rail alignments to create
the network that we know today.
The first section opened in August 1980,
between Haymarket around to Tynemouth.
In May of the next year,
the branch at the Bank Foot was opened,
it wouldn't get to the airport until later.
In November 1981, the network descended South
over the Tyne on a bridge, down to Heworth
until a year later in 1982, the line from Tynemouth
came back along the North side of the river
to Newcastle city centre.
The extension out to South Shields opened in March 1984,
followed by the extension to the airport in November 1991.
The network was then complete with the addition of a line
down through Sunderland, to where it terminates today
at South Hylton in March 2002.
The configuration of services over the years
has meant that there have also been red and blue coloured
lines on the official map at some point,
but nowadays there are just two lines,
the yellow and green.
Note, also that between Pelaw and Sunderland,
the Metro shares the track with
and runs alongside national rail services.
Now we've started our morning here at Bank Foot Station,
not at the end, which is the airport,
Newcastle International Airport, was the end of the line,
but we started here because this is where
the line originally used to terminate
before they extended it out to the airport in the 1990s.
What we like about this section of track though,
is that many of the stations there are several of these
open crossings, the lights flash, beepers beep,
but there are no barrier gates
to actually stop you going across.
So the trains go slowly and the cars have to stop.
Our next stop was Regent Centre interchange,
Where if you go outside, you can see the impressive canopy
that straddles the entrance,
along with the artwork on the wall.
It's also got these old disused ticket barriers,
which are no longer in use.
And we think it's the only place left on the system
where you can see them.
As you depart Regent Centre, look out to the window,
on the left-hand side, to see the Metro depot,
where all the trains are stored and maintained.
You'll often see drivers getting
off and on at South Gosforth,
which is the nearest station to the depot,
but our next station is Ilford Road.
Where there's a rather interesting anomaly,
you've got the two platforms here facing each other,
but if you look at this station, there's no footbridge.
There's no way of crossing from one side to the other.
The closest I can find on Google Maps,
is to walk down the road that way for two minutes,
then crossover on a road bridge and then come back.
There's no footbridge at Ilford Road.
Next up we get out at Jesmond for some abandonment
and some culinary treats.
Exit left out of the Metro station to find
the remnants of an old station.
So I've walked through that passage way,
come to the black railings, have a peek over
and you can see quite clearly down here,
the old platforms of the former Jesmond Station.
And also right next to this is a railway themed pub,
which itself is next to this restaurant where you can dine
in an old railway carriage.
Oh, and back at the entrance to Jesmond Metro,
the news agent shop there sells the cheapest cup of tea
we've ever seen at any station.
For the next part of our trip, we went up over the top
of the yellow line, which heads towards the coast,
where there are many picturesque stations,
the first of which is West Monkseaton.
So we've jumped out here at West Monkseaton,
it's a gorgeous old station with many
original art deco features.
This whole section of the Tyne & Wear Metro
is actually splendid.
If you want to get out away from the hustle and bustle
of Newcastle city centre and come to any part of the Metro,
come to this section here around by the coast,
by the sea down to Tynemouth, its delightful.
Delightful might even be an understatement,
for if you come to ride the Metro, as you may want to
after watching this video,
you simply must come to see the stations
on this coastal part of the network,
which all retain lots of their original features
back from a time when they were once part of British Rail.
This is the gorgeous Monkseaton.
Old ticket windows.
This is the stunning Tynemouth,
which has abandoned platforms too.
And so much space that it hosts a market
within the station every weekend.
And then there's the utterly charming Whitley Bay.
Which has got this bonus feature too.
Whitley Bay it is gorgeous.
Come for the sea side,
come for the beautiful station, come for the clock tower,
or maybe just come for the only place on the Metro
that has a toilet.
I really have to go back in a sec.
Oh and by the way, a bit like another railway system
we know and love, did we mention that you can sit
right at the front of the trains.
It's like the DLR in London,
you can sit in the front seat and drive the train.
They get a new train though,
when the new trains come in, this, this will go.
Otherwise, this is the prime seat.
That prime seat took us to North Shields.
(seagulls squawking)
We made it to North Shields, come here to get the ferry.
If you've got a zone, A, B and C ticket,
your ticket is also valid to travel on the North Shields
to the South Shields ferry.
But down here, there's an old abandoned platform,
a bit of track with some buffers that aren't in use anymore.
Right at the start of the video we spoke about
how there used to be yellow, green and a red
and a blue line, when blue line trains used to run,
used to terminate here at this platform, but no more.
From this point trains are now heading west back
towards Newcastle and in between Howdon and Hadrian's Road
stations, trains go across this,
the magnificent Willington Dene viaduct,
a great view from above, but also just as impressive
if you're standing in the park down below.
And that takes us to the next stop,
which intriguingly has got two names.
And that brings us to Segedunum Station,
what's that?
We're at Wallsend, that's the Latin for it.
Wallsend, literally the end of the wall
because Hadrian's wall is just over there.
The 76 mile long world heritage UNESCO site
starts just over the way.
This is the station to come to.
And as a tribute to that,
a lot of the signs here at the station
have been put into Latin.
Wallsend Station also has the most number of steps
for any station without a lift or escalator, 44 in total.
And at Manors there's no sign of the National Rail Station
of the same name.
You'll notice on the map of the Metro,
where there are connections to national rail stations.
The national rail symbol appears,
but not at Manors because there's such a limited service
to the national railway station at Manors,
it's Newcastle's least used station,
that the Metro decide not to mark it as a connection
on the map.
The map is printed on the back of all leaflets
at the Metro produce and can be picked up at most stations.
Well, the other fun thing to do of course,
is to read a copy of the Metro whilst on the Metro.
At St. James' Park, the football stadium is right outside
and the station has got black and white decor to match.
But in the ticket hall area,
there's also a football pitch in the tiles with footprints
and signatures of former players and managers.
Haymarket station is the deepest on the network,
but have you ever noticed how long platform two is?
With trains stopping right at the front
and never at the back.
So don't ever wait there.
It's also just one of the nine stations on the Metro
that are physically underground.
So for our next stop, we headed back up to the surface.
We've made it to Felling Station.
We're South of the Tyne now, we're heading for Sunderland.
Interestingly, if you have a ticket,
which is valid on the Metro, it's also valid
on national rail services between Sunderland and Newcastle.
But over here, there's an old signal box
from an old railway.
Yes, before British Rail in 1948,
was the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923.
But before that in the early eighteen hundreds,
the signal box was originally part
of the Brandling Junction Railway.
And our next stop, is Pelaw.
Yes, that's where we are.
Just a fun one, I do have an obsession with bins,
mainly like litter bins that sway in the breeze.
Here on the Tyne & Wear Metro,
the bins are like hard plastic or metal
and the colours of the Metro, are yellow and green.
And we couldn't help notice that here,
is it by design or by accident,
that the litter bins,
one for regular on one for recycling
are yellow and green.
At this point, the yellow litter bin,
sorry I mean the yellow line, heads East
and terminates at South Shields,
which has now had three stations in its history.
The current one was built to form a new interchange
with the bus station.
But if you look down the line,
you can see the platforms of the old one that closed
in the summer of 2019.
Moving on and we get to the Stadium of Light Station
decked out in the colours of Sunderland of red and white.
But actually we think it's not the nearest station
physically located to the Stadium of Light.
St. Peter's is actually slightly closer.
Can you see in the distance by the old iron red footbridge
that's Monkwearmouth Station, that's an old station.
You've also think of a Stadium of Light over there.
And over here, you have the Wearmouth Bridge,
the impressive green structure there.
And then here at St. Peter's in this area,
is an art installation.
There are lights, which sadly aren't working today
and they change their frequency depending
on how strong the wind is blowing.
Just imagine this is a cool lit up area with lights.
Our next stop was Sunderland where it was time
to get the stopwatch out.
We're leaving Sunderland Station
and when we do, I'm going to hit start on my stopwatch.
Now, because the distance between here and Park Lane
is the shortest distance between
two stations on the network.
Sunderland is actually underground in terms of,
it's had shops built on top of it.
And national rail trains pass through here too.
We're going to time it.
I think it takes about two minutes?
One minute, seven seconds, shortest distance
between two stations.
We were heading towards the end of the green line
and our next stop threw up a statistic,
which I always like to focus on, on any railway network.
We made it to Pallion the 59th out of 60,
the penultimate stop on our journey today
around all the Metro stations.
And this is actually the least used station
on the Tyne & Wear Metro, just 576 people a day
on average, use this station.
It also weirdly has the longest ramp
on the whole of the network.
Don't forget, you can also look out the back of the train
for the view of the tracks behind you,
which is what we did as we arrived at station number 60.
And we made it to the end of the line,
South Hylton, which actually has the longest
physical Metro platform and it terminates here
in a single platform.
And over there, you can see where there's a pathway
where the railway used to extend further
and go all the way to Durham.
And that's it.
That is your trip.
That is your journey,
your experience around the Tyne & Wear Metro.
And that was secrets of the Tyne & Wear Metro.
Thanks, bye.