Tyne and Wear Metro
Tyne and Wear Metro
Quite a bit of disruption this morning, particularly on the Sunderland line. Apparently there was a points failure near Brockley Whins.
I nearly got off the bus at the Wheatsheaf and walked down to St Peters instead because the bus was running a few minutes late, but I'm glad I chanced it and stayed on till Sunderland where I would have been warmer. Arrived for the 06:14 metro, announcement guy reckons it would be four minutes late - fair do's I suppose. A few minutes later that became 8 minutes late, then 20 minutes late. It ended up arriving almost 25 minutes late.
We ended up having a 15 minute wait at Seaburn, and another 15-20 minute wait at East Boldon. At East Boldon, an announcement on the station platform announced that all trains are suspended Pelaw-South Hylton and no bus replacement service would be operating. I very nearly got off the metro then to call a taxi, and a few people actually did. 30 seconds later or so, the driver announces that the train would be able to continue to Pelaw in a few minutes. I appreciate that the ice and cold weather causes disruption, but it's the conflicting announcements that I think could be improved upon.
It's the same at Sunderland; the guy bends over backwards giving very regular updates and apologising profusely for delays to the 06:20 Northern Rail service to Hartlepool, and a ridiculous amount of updates on the 06:10 Tyne and Wear Metro service to South Hylton, but there were only three updates for the 06:14 Tyne and Wear Metro service to Airport. I've never even anyone waiting for the 06:10 service to South Hylton before.
Nexus apparently only subsidise the Northern Rail service between Newcastle and Sunderland. So I don't understand why they always give updates on the 06:10 service from Sunderland to Hartlepool but never any updates at all for the 06:45 Grand Central service to London. And that's not just today either.
Ended up at work an hour later than I wanted to, so had to put in that hour at the end of the day which I wasn't very happy about. Hopefully it'll not happen again!
I'll write an email to Nexus asking about these announcements. I just feel sorry for the people who listened to the advice that all trains had been suspended and then left, only for the driver to announce almost immediately after that we'd be moving soon. Driver was fabulous though; I can't thank him enough for keeping us informed throughout.
