The task of Nexus is to improve the economic prosperity of Tyne and Wear, and the daily lives of its people, through the provision, procurement, planning and promotion of public transport.
A key activity for Nexus is the maintenance and operation of the Tyne and Wear Metro. Metro, opened in 1980, was the UK’s first modern light rail service, the first to be designed with disabled passengers in mind, the first to be non-smoking and the first to provide mobile reception in tunnels. It carries over 40 million passengers a year across 60 stations. The newest, Simonside in South Tyneside, opened in March 2008. Three stations on Metro are among the busiest 20 in the English regions in passenger numbers, including Monument, which handles more than 10 million people alone.
Nexus has begun a £600 million project to re-invigorate Metro through the Metro: all change programme. More than £50 million is being spent including Simonside station, the rebuilding of Haymarket station in Newcastle, the refurbishment of Sunderland station and the replacement of all ticket machines. Between 2010 and 2019 a further £300 million committed by Government will be invested in station and train modernisation, track, structure and power line renewal and a new communications system. A further investment programme after 2019 will keep Metro among the UK’s premier urban transport systems.
Improvements to Metro are not Nexus’s only concern. The PTE is also keen to promote and improve the area’s bus services. A major bus strategy for Tyne and Wear sets out how Nexus wishes to work together with operators and local authorities to improve the whole network. It is drawing up a unified network for South Tyneside to be delivered with operators and is engaged in a Quality Partnership in East Gateshead. Nexus has submitted a joint £15 million bid with local councils for two major bus-based park-and-ride schemes on the congested A1 Western Bypass corridor and for bus priority schemes around them and elsewhere to supplement these. Its ‘Buses are Getting Better’ campaign aims to raise awareness of the high quality vehicles and comfortable, fast and direct services on offer in Tyne and Wear.
An example of Nexus in action is Route 19, a multi-million pound project combining a high quality bus service with the Metro and Shields Ferry (Nexus runs this - the only remaining cross-Tyne ferry service - carrying 500,000 passengers a year). Route 19 comprises a new ferry landing at North Shields, infrastructure improvements including a new Metro station, bus interchange and a 400 space park-and-ride facility at Northumberland Park as well as a fast, frequent and reliable high quality bus route linking it all together. The service covers areas which would otherwise be difficult to reach without a car.
Updated December 2008.
