Buckingham Group Contracting Limited has won a tender worth £55 million to dual three key sections of track between Pelaw and Bede, creating the capacity for an extra 24,000 passenger journeys each day on the Tyne and Wear Metro. This is a major part of the Metro Flow project which will help to increase service frequency, cut journey times and improve reliability on the network.
The dualling of three sections of track is a major element of the Metro Flow project which will see an existing freight line upgraded and electrified. The three sections of single track to be doubled are between Pelaw and Hebburn (800 metres), Hebburn and Jarrow (1.4km) and Harrow and Bede (600 metres). In addition to the doubling of track the project has seen a further four trains ordered from Stadler which will see a total of 46 now constructed in Switzerland.
£95 million worth of funding has been secured from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund to help cover the costs of the Metro Flow project. The work on the track dualling is expected to take place between September and December 2022.
Martin Kearney, Chief Operating Officer at Nexus, said: “We’re looking forward to working with the Buckingham Group to deliver this exciting £100m scheme that will vastly improve Metro services for our customers. It will involve the conversion of an existing heavy rail line, bringing it into dual use so that Metros can run alongside freight services, which is similar to the operations we have on the Sunderland line. This will increase the frequency of Metro services system-wide from twelve minutes to ten minutes outside of the central areas. For our passengers this means more regular services, and faster journey times. This project also gives us the scope to examine future opportunities to expand the network to other areas that are currently not served by Metro.”
The main benefits of the Metro Flow project will be:
- Increasing the frequency of Metro trains to one every 10 minutes outside central areas
- Deliver capacity for an extra 24,000 passengers a day
- Improve reliability and allow quicker recovery from major disruptions
- Better support for major events including the Great North Run, Sunderland International Airshow, stadium concerts and major sporting events
- Unlock the door to the expansion of the Metro system
Chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee, Cllr Martin Gannon, said: “This is an important milestone in the Metro Flow project, the largest element of the region’s Transforming Cities Fund programme by far. The delivery of Metro Flow will be transformational for the people who use the Metro in the North East, improving journey times and the reliability of services for passengers. As a result, more services will be able to run across the entire Metro system, showing just how critical investment in transport is to the future success of our region. Increased frequency on our system means we can help more and more people move efficiently across our network to access work, leisure and education in a green, sustainable way. This project will make a huge difference to thousands of journeys every day – hopefully encouraging more people out of their car and onto public transport.”