A set of rare Metro tickets purchased on the eve of the network’s public opening has surfaced on eBay, offering a glimpse into the early days of Tyne and Wear’s light rail system.

Nine tickets, issued on Sunday, 10 August 1980, were discovered by local transport enthusiast Ian Chapman, who specialises in Metro memorabilia.

The date places them just hours before the system began passenger services, making them an unusual survival from a significant moment in regional transport history.

The tickets are the familiar yellow paper stock issued by early automatic coin-operated ticket machines when the Metro first launched.

Fares at the time could be as low as 6p for a child ticket, reflecting the pricing structure of the early 1980s. These durable paper tickets remained in widespread use on the network until 2013, when they were replaced by smart ticketing and updated ticket machines.

They follow the Edmondson format, a traditional railway ticketing system introduced in 1838 by English stationmaster Thomas Edmondson.

The standardised design became a mainstay of railway operations across Britain and beyond for more than a century, before being phased out on National Rail during the late 20th century.

Metro operator Nexus said such items are seldom found, noting that few tickets from that period are likely to remain in circulation.

Chapman, whose collection includes more than 40,000 used Metro tickets, identified the items in a larger batch he purchased from sellers based on the Isle of Wight and in Hertfordshire.

The Tyne and Wear Metro’s first section, between Haymarket and Tynemouth, opened at 5 am on Monday, 11 August 1980. For enthusiasts, the tickets represent both the network’s launch and the final decades of a heritage ticketing system that outlasted its use on the wider rail network.

 “It’s not often that you see Metro tickets that were sold before the network was opened. I’m thrilled to have found some. Back in August 1980, a lot of transport enthusiasts will have gone to the Metro stations the night before the opening to try and get the very first ticket. The ticket machines back then were analogue, so they will have printed the previous day’s date on them up to around 2 am. I saw a batch of them on eBay for £22 and I decided to buy them.”

“For rail enthusiasts, there is a great fondness for these old-style tickets. Not only because they are from the opening of Metro, but because they are the heritage style tickets that were phased out on the national railways in 1990, but were in use on Metro up to 2013.”

“The Holy Grail for all collectors is to find the very first ever Tyne and Wear Metro ticket, number 000001. It will hopefully be out there somewhere. I’ll keep looking. I’ve got a passion for Metro memorabilia.”

Ian Chapman