There will be no services on the Tyne and Wear Metro from Saturday evening (18th February) until 0800 on Sunday morning because of an industrial relations matter affecting the Control Centre. This has seen a small number of staff not willing to work overtime or train other colleagues to perform their roles which means it isn’t possible to safely run a service during this period.
Tyne and Wear Metro services will start to finish from 1600 on Saturday 18th February although most stations should see their final journeys between 1700 and 1800. Services will start to build up again from 0800 on Sunday 19th February with a normal timetable in operation from 0900.
John Alexander, Metro Operations Director, explains more: “We are forced to suspend the Metro service across the system on Saturday evening and early Sunday morning due to an industrial relations matter affecting our Control Centre. I am sorry for the inconvenience this will cause for many people.
“A small number of Metro employees in our control centre are refusing to work overtime or train colleagues to perform their roles. We have contingencies in place to protect our customers when this happens, but on this occasion we’ve exhausted all options, so we do not have staff available to operate Metro safely during one full shift from Saturday evening into Sunday morning. We are working hard with our trade unions in productive talks to resolve the outstanding issues there are within the control centre teams. This is an unprecedented situation and I very much hope it is not repeated. We are doing all we can to prevent that.”
During the system closure Metro tickets will be accepted on local bus services.