Tyne and Wear Metro chiefs admit that train services have “not been good enough” as passengers brace for a major ticket price hike this weekend.
Fare increases of up to 13.9% for some tickets are due to come into force on Saturday, April 1, though prices are being frozen for people who travel using a Pop Pay As You Go card. The move has been blamed on the dramatically increased energy costs faced by operator Nexus this year, with the size of the Metro’s annual high voltage electricity bill having spiralled from £8m to around £20m.
But the fare increases, previously branded “insulting” to customers, come at a time when travellers have been enduring regular disruption – the latest bout of which came on Thursday morning when commuters’ journeys were halted by a serious overhead line failure at Pelaw. Transport bosses recently had to scrap extra peak-time trains from the Metro’s timetable because of reliability problems, while there have been a raft of issues over recent months as a result of freezing temperatures, rail strikes, and maintenance works.
