Starting next week, part of the Tyne and Wear Metro will be closed for 12 weeks as part of the £104m Metro Flow project to convert stretches of single line to double track.
During the closure, three sections of single track line totalling three kilometres between Pelaw and Bede Metro stations will be converted to double track. This will remove pinch points on the Metro network and improve reliability across the whole of Metro. It will also allow the frequency of trains to be increased in the future.
At the moment, trains must use the same line in both directions on the single-track sections. If there are any delays to trains, it will cause knock-on effects, leading to hold-ups and make it harder to recover when incidents occur.
From Monday, 12th September to Saturday, 3rd December Metro will be closed between Pelaw and South Shields, with normal Metro services resuming on Sunday, 4th December.
The sections of line affected are an 800m stretch between Pelaw and Hebburn, a 1.4km stretch between Hebburn and Jarrow, and a 600 stretch between Jarrow and Bede. This will be the longest and biggest closure in Metro's 42-year history.
During the closure, a frequent replacement bus service will be in operation. Service 900 will call at all affected stations on the route, whilst the X900 will operate an express service between South Shields and Heworth.
The Great North Run takes place on Sunday, 11th September and will not be affected by the closure.
The Government's Transforming Cities Fund has provided £95m towards the total project cost of £104m and will be carried out by Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd.
Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of South Tyneside Council, said:
“Having a safe, reliable and sustainable public transport network is crucial for people to get around, whether they are travelling to work, education or for recreation.
“The planned line closure marks a significant step in the Metro Flow project, an investment which will bring long-term benefits to the Borough and the wider region.
“Although it does mean there will be major disruption over the coming months for those who use the Metro to travel to and from South Tyneside, people are assured that once the Metro Flow project is complete, it will make a huge difference with journey times and frequency vastly improved.
“The track dualling will also help to minimise disruption if problems occur while creating scope for expansion of the Metro network in the future.”
Major Projects Director at Nexus, Cathy Massarella, said: “This is the longest and biggest planned closure on Metro that we've ever undertaken in 42 years of operations.
“The £100m Metro Flow project involves a massive programme of track dualling, which can only be carried out during a three-month major line closure.
“It is never an easy decision to close such a large section of the network for such a long period of time, but this is the only way that we can effectively deliver the track dualling works.
“I would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding while these works are taking place.
“The closure will run from Monday 12 September until Sunday 4 December. Customers will need to plan ahead when the line closure is in place. Allow plenty of extra time for your journeys and there will be frequent replacement buses running, which includes an express service between Heworth and South Shields.
“The work will see three pinch points on the Metro network eliminated by the dualling of an existing freight line, which will become part of the of Metro's own infrastructure.
“This also gives us the scope to examine future opportunities to expand the network to other areas that are currently not served by Metro.”
