The new £21 million bus and Tyne and Wear Metro interchange at South Shields is progressing with the roof now having been installed. The project to build the new interchange started earlier this year and is Phase Two of the £100 million South Shields 365 regeneration masterplan.
As we reported earlier this month South Shields Metro station is closed for five weeks whilst this work is taking place with services instead terminating at Chichester until Saturday 3rd November.
Cllr Iain Malcolm, Leader of South Tyneside Council, said: “We’ve been watching this building take shape since construction started in April and it’s fantastic to see our plans coming to fruition. Now that the steel structure of the building is up and the roof is in place we are starting to see what an impressive gateway into our revitalised town this facility is going to be. Work is progressing on schedule and within less than a year the interchange will be welcoming its first passengers.”
The full interchange is due to be completed by next summer after which the current Metro station will be demolished.
With South Shields currently closed trains are terminating at Chichester. This sees the trains using the usual South Shields bound platform to terminate before they pull forward and then use the crossover to access the correct platform. 4013+4014 show the move here for us as they approach Platform 2 over the crossover ready to return towards Newcastle.
A view of the current progress with the new South Shields Transport Interchange. (Both Photographs by Trevor Hall, 17th October 2018)