Tyne and Wear Metro trains will be shut down across the entire network from Saturday evening amid a dispute with staff.
The last services will end between 5pm and 6pm on Saturday and will not restart until 8am on Sunday morning, posing a headache for travellers heading out at the weekend.
Metro operator Nexus apologised for the disruption, which is the result of a row with employees in the system’s control centre.
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Tickets will be accepted on local buses across the area while the service is suspended.
It is understood that staff on the critical Metro power supply desk, where just 10 people work, have declined to work overtime or come in on their days off to cover a shortage.
Nexus also claimed that the staff were refusing to train up other colleagues to perform their essential tasks.
A representative of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said the workers could not be compelled to work outside their contracted hours and that a lack of contingency cover in the control room was a problem that had been “ongoing for many, many years and has never been sufficiently dealt with”.
The contractual row has not escalated into a formal trade dispute at this stage and this weekend’s events do not amount to industrial action.
RMT regional organiser Micky Thompson said unions would “work tirelessly” with Nexus to resolve the problem, but warned that closures may become a more regular occurrence if changes are not made.
John Alexander, Metro Operations Director, said: “We are forced to suspend the Metro service across the system on Saturday evening and early Sunday morning due to an industrial relations matter affecting our Control Centre. I am sorry for the inconvenience this will cause for many people.
“A small number of Metro employees in our control centre are refusing to work overtime or train colleagues to perform their roles.
"We have contingencies in place to protect our customers when this happens, but on this occasion we’ve exhausted all options, so we do not have staff available to operate Metro safely during one full shift from Saturday evening into Sunday morning.
“We are working hard with our trade unions in productive talks to resolve the outstanding issues there are within the control centre teams."
Metro services will start running off after 4pm on Saturday, though most stations will see their last trains between 5pm and 6pm.
On Sunday morning the service will build up from 8am and return to a normal timetable from 9am, including a replacement bus all day Saturday and Sunday between Chichester and South Shields for planned modernisation work.
Mr Thompson said unions had held “productive” talks with Nexus, while another meeting to try and resolve the control room problems is set for February 28, but that staff simply cannot be forced into working hours they are not contracted to.
He added: “The last thing I want is the Metro to be shut down and we will work tirelessly with the organisation to find a resolution, even though there is no trade dispute.
“We had very productive discussions but they have not been able to deliver the outcome that the company wants.
“The staff are not incentivised by the proposals or counter offers, they just don’t want to have to work on their rest days and you cannot force them to do that.
“There is no requirement in their contract to do that, they are just exercising their right to say that they want to spend their time off with their families.”
It is understood that the refusal to train other staff is not because that would also require overtime working, but Mr Thompson added that if the control room workers were contractually obliged to perform training “then the employer would force them to do it”.
