The Metro Invention Challenge – run by Nexus alongside creative education organisation Little Inventors – has see children come up with some unique inventions aimed at making journeys on the network more fun. Winning entries included a seat just for dogs, a carriage just for children, an app for visitors and a ticket booth that gets people moving.
This is another part of the Metro Takeover programme which was funded by Arts Council England to help celebrate Metro’s 40th anniversary in 2020 (and since extended) and saw Primary School children from across Tyne and Wear invited to invent something that could make journeys on the Metro even more fun.
The winning entries were:
- Lily Kenyon, 10, invented the Mettie Mash Virtual Tour Guide to give people information on the sights they were passing on the train
- Eva Browell, 9, invented the Super Ultra Pup Seat to make dogs feel at home on board
- Maddie Wilson, 11, invented the Move and Groove ticket dispenser which gives active customers 50% off their ticket price if they move or dance before buying their ticket
- Eden Armstrong-Kirtley, 7, invented the Metro Fun Park, a carriage just for children, with a ball pool, climbing frame and bouncy castle
Huw Lewis, Nexus’s Customer Services Director, said: “Art has featured on Metro in a wide variety of ways over the last 40 years, and this was an opportunity to really encourage some creativity in our younger customers. The winning designs are innovative, full of fun and would no doubt be loved by some of our customers, and their dogs!”
The prize included the winners seeing their designs transformed into 3D graphics which were then installed in large poster sites at Longbenton, Heworth and Gateshead Stadium Metro stations and on advertising sites on Metro trains. All four winners also got to visit Nexus’ print room to see their designs printed in large scale.