DfT backs Metro capacity project

The Government has awarded £95m towards the £104m cost of a project to improve Tyne and Wear Metro service frequencies.  The key part of the Metro Flow project will see three sections of single track on the Metro network totalling three kilometres dualled between Pelaw and Bede Metro stations. This will be achieved by electrifying an existing freight line that parallels the Metro line by September 2022, making it capable of carrying Metro services. The line will be open for dual use by the Metro and freight trains, similar to how the Sunderland line operates. The works will enable frequencies across the network to be raised from every 12 minutes to every ten. In order to deliver the extra frequencies, Nexus will use some of the funding to buy four extra new trains on top of the 42 new trains that have already been funded by the Government in a £362m programme of investment.