The Tyne and Wear Metro will become “completely unsustainable” unless the Government is willing to pay its massive electricity bills, a council leader has warned.
Transport officials now expect that the cost of the high voltage power used to run Metro trains across the region will be almost triple what was expected this year – jumping from an initial £8.4m to £21m because of the global energy crisis. While bosses at Nexus say they can absorb the pressure this year thanks to Government grant funding, which has propped up the network’s finances since the Covid pandemic hit, there are serious worries about what will happen next year.
Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon claimed on Tuesday that, without an extension to the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the Metro could be facing more than £5m worth of cuts in 2023/24 – meaning drastic reductions in services that could in turn cause a collapse in passenger numbers. He told the North East Joint Transport Committee (JTC): “Unless the Government extends that support, and it does not just affect the Metro, the system will become completely unsustainable.”
