Metro investment

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Last week, representatives of the Tyne & Wear PTA, Nexus, subitted a £600m, 20 year investement plan for the Metro light rail system.

The Tyne & Wear Metro was built in the late 70's and opened, in stages, from August 1980 - the first such system in the UK, outside of London. I used Metro almost from day one, and for the following 18 years, until work took me away from the reaches of the network.

It was a fantastic system in the early years, but like most large projects in this country, suffers from a lack of sufficient investment and a lot of the existing infrastructure needs replacing.

It has the potential to be great again, but it is also forecast to cease operating in 2012 should the necessary investment not be made. Hence the proposals delivered to Downing Street.

I cannot stress how important it is that these proposals are accepted - Metro caries something like 130 000 passengers every working day. Just imagine (those of you who know and love the roads around Tyneside) all of those people off the Metro and onto buses and into cars.

The government has made much of supporting public transport, but has not delivered nearly as much as it should have. I wish we could look at expanding the system, but central government has blocked that. However, even what currently exists needs upgrading, and £30m a year over 20 years is not to my mind a very big ask.

References:
Metro website
Metro re-invigoration plans

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