Tyne and Wear Metro services have now been suspended between Monument and Gateshead Stadium following additional advice received by Nexus as a result of continued investigations into the safety concerns over the Gateshead flyover.
As reported earlier this week Gateshead flyover was closed to all traffic by Gateshead Council after an inspection by structural engineers indicated there was a potential risk to safety if it remained open. Although the flyover itself is not served by the Metro, it runs in tunnels immediately below it and initially speed restrictions were put in place but trains were still able to run.
However, this situation has now changed with Nexus having been given further advice which had led to the decision to stop all services through the tunnel until the issue with the flyover is resolved.
This means that Metro services are running:
- Monument to Airport
- Monument to St James
- Gateshead Stadium to South Shields
- Gateshead Stadium to South Hylton
There is no service between Monument and Gateshead Stadium with Metro tickets valid on all Go North East bus services between Newcastle, Gateshead and Heworth.
Cathy Massarella, Managing Director at Nexus, said: “Based upon the information available to us to date, Metro services have been able to operate through the tunnels beneath the flyover, albeit with a speed restriction in place as a precautionary control.
“We’ve continued to closely monitor the situation and having received further specialist advice this afternoon, we have had to immediately suspend services through the tunnels, until we can put in place more thorough controls.
“This is a developing situation, and we will update customers further as soon as we are able to. We’re aware of the significant disruption this will cause, however the safety of our customers and employees is our top priority.”
There is no indication when services may resume through the tunnels again.