Passengers held up as Metros grind to a halt during power cut
TRAINS on the Metro were brought to a standstill for almost an hour yesterday morning after the power supply cut out between Jesmond and South Tyneside.
Passengers faced long delays after planned engineering works caused further problems when the power to the tracks south of the river was accidentally cut, and Nexus were unable to lay on replacement buses. Scheduled engineering work meant there were already no trains between Haymarket and Regent Centre, and between Haymarket and Four Lane Ends.
However, trains then ground to a halt between Haymarket and both South Shields and South Hylton shortly before 8am when the power cut out. Service resumed again around an hour later after engineers restored the power supply, but passengers were disgruntled at the further disruption. A Nexus spokesperson explained: “When the engineers were switching the power supply, it isolated the power on the south side of the river. The issue was in Jesmond, so we had engineers attend but it took about 45 minutes to fix – a lot longer than initially thought.
“Being Sunday morning, we couldn’t get any ticket acceptance in place or replacement buses and we apologise for the disruption. The trains resumed service at approximately 8.40am.”
The power fault comes days after Metro bosses warned they would be forced to cut services and leave passengers behind at stations if urgentlyneeded new trains are delayed. The boss of Nexus claimed the Tyne and Wear Metro timetable will be cut if existing trains are still in use after 2021. Nexus managing director Tobyn Hughes said: “We would be leaving people behind at stations on a regular basis if we reduced the timetable in rushhour,” he said.
Nexus, which runs the Metro and administers funds on behalf of the North East’s councils, has been in talks with the Department for Transport since the start of the year about replacing the 40-year-old fleet of trains.
But while the Government says it accepts the need to replace the fleet, there is still no decision about funding. Nexus is hoping the Treasury will pay for 84 new trains, either by providing a grant of up to £400m or by allowing Nexus to borrow the money.