The Tyne and Wear metro is a light rail system locally known as “the metro” even tough it provides transportation services not only to Newcastle city but also to all the north east of England: Newcastle upon Tyne, north and south of Tyne, and Gateshead, an area of near one million inhabitants. It started operating in 1980 and has got a nearly 78 kilometers length network. It is considered the first modern light rail system in U.K, a sort of hybrid between metro, light train, and interurban railway and also was the first transport system integrated in the whole country.
Newcastle Metro Lines
Presently, there are two lines with a total of sixty stations operated by Nexus with a daily traffic of 115000 passengers.
- Green Line: going from Newcastle Airport to south Hylton trough the center of Newcastle up Tyne and Sunderland.
- Yellow Line: going from Saint James up South Shields via North Shields, Tynemouth, Whitley Bay, Gateshead and Barrow
There are also two reinforcement additional lines only working during peak hours, Red line between Pelaw and Benton, and Blue Line between St James and North Shields.
Metro Opening Hours:
Metro works from 05.00 a.m to 24.00 p.m
Frequency Step
Metro runs every 10 minutes during the day, every 7-8 minutes at peak hour and every 15 minutes at night. Betwen South Gosford and Pelaw, frequency is always doubled at any time of the day.
Tickets and Fares
Can be purchased at vending machines located in all the stations.
Metro Single Tickets: They are valid for 90 minutes from when you buy it and you can use them for one continuous journey on the Metro and on the train between Newcastle and Sunderland. The price depends on the number of zones you travel in:
- 1 zone…..1,60£
- 2 zones….2,40£
- 3 zones….3,10£
Metro Day Ticket: Allows unlimited travel on various forms of transport including Metro, Shields Ferry and local rail services (Newcastle to Sunderland) for the whole day. Travel times and prices vary depending on the type of DaySaver. Price depend on number of zones required and time of purchase (reduced after 9.00am on weekdays, all day at weekends and public holidays)
| Zones | Peak Time(before 9.00 a.m.) | Reduced Fare Time(after 9.00 a.m.) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 zone | 2,70£ | 2,30£ |
| 2 zones | 3,90£ | 3,30£ |
| All | 5,00£ | 4,20£ |
Adult Day Ticket
This ticket offers one day’s unlimited travel within Tyne and Wear when using bus and Metro, or buses runned by different operators.
Price of the Adult Day Ticket is 6,80 £, reduced to £5.50 when buying From 1 July to 31 December 2012. Adult Day tickets can be purchased from Metro ticket machines, from all drivers of major bus operators’ services and on-board the Shields Ferry. It’s also valid on Northern Rail’s Newcastle-MetroCentre/Blaydon rail service.
Transfares When your journey includes travelling on more than one type of transport, Transfares allow you to buy just one ticket for your journey. Transfare allows you to make a journey of two legs on different types of transport whenever you start the second part of your journey within 90 minutes of buying your ticket. We will purchase the Transfare depending on how many zones we will travel trought.
- Travelling inside 1 zone: T1…… 2,50£
- Travelling throught 2 zones: T2…… 3,30£
- Travelling throught 3 zones: T3…… 4,00£
It can be purchase from vending machines just selecting T1, T2 or T3.
Metro Season Tickets: Available to unlimited travel for a week, a month or the whole year in the Metro, the Shields Ferry and Newcastle to Sunderland rail line. The price depends on the number of zones you require. Ticket is personal and non transferrable and to buy one you have to address to the Nexus Travel shops located at Monument, Central Station or Haymarket with an application form and passport photo. The following renovations can be made on line.
For an Adult:
| Zones | 1 week | 1 month | 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 zone | 9,40£ | 34,50£ | – |
| 2 zones | 13,80£ | 48,50£ | – |
| All | 19,00£ | 64,00£ | 500,00£ |
Children. Accompanied children under the age of five travels for free in the Metro, and also in the Tyne and Wear area. For children under sixteen, there is a Pop Card, with it they can travel on public transport in Tyne and Wear for just £1.10 a day by buying a CAT (Child All-day Ticket) or buy a single metro ticket for just 0,60£. Without this card, metro single ticket is 0,70 £. Age has to be proved, and tickets can be bought at metro vending machines.
There are many other fares, (pensioners, students…etc), to check them all enter at:
http://www.nexus.org.uk/metro/tickets
Airport:
Green Subway Line ends in the Newcastle Airport, and from here we can easily move to city center or neighboring towns or link the commuter trains or buses. Ride to the city center takes twenty minutes.
