(13 Jan 2016, 11:11 am)Davie wrote Not being funny here; why is it people say the 82/82A are unreliable, but usually when I see them they are on time?

(13 Jan 2016, 4:08 pm)DanPicken wrote I believe Lee kept saying that it was always late and it escalated from there.

(13 Jan 2016, 12:33 am)Bus_User wrote How is it an farce Dan? What can you do when the OHL failed? There must be a reason why its always seems to be between Pelaw and Brockley where it fails yet elsewhere on the Sunderland line, it seems fine so surely it can't be the design of the OHL like someone suggested?

It needs to be investigated because it is too often and I like to think Nexus are involved in it and not just leaving it to NR.


I also hope if you do finally get a car you leave plenty of time for your journey to work as your likely to encounter delays when driving along the A194...

(13 Jan 2016, 7:11 pm)Adrian wrote It's a farce because customers, for the second time in as many months, are facing a major outage spanning multiple days. On top of that, neither the owner of the system or the operator, have managed to implement suitable and a demand responsive contingency plan. To make matters even worse, the two of them together seem incapable of providing proper and effect communication.

Most passengers couldn't give a stuff what the reason is for outage and who is to blame. They simply want the service that they've paid a lot of money to have access to. Most would even settle for a suitable alternative, on the occasion that things do go wrong.

The problem is that it's not an occasional thing. It's every single day, and it's becoming apparent that the operator is out of it's depth.

(13 Jan 2016, 7:12 pm)DanPicken wrote Passengers get even more annoyed as the prices went up for a worse service.

(13 Jan 2016, 7:14 pm)Adrian wrote Apparently bus operators haven't been accepting tickets either, according to that Facebook group? Someone in Metro must have made the call not to agree something for today. How nice of them.

(14 Jan 2016, 9:56 am)Andreos1 wrote Someone from DB Regio was on Radio Newcastle earlier, they stated the source of the fault had been identified and it was water in the OLE that was causing the issue.

The repairs were compounded with the line being live for Northern services.

Hopefully sorted by tomorrow.

(14 Jan 2016, 12:06 pm)ifm001 wrote Northern rail services have been operating all 3 days whilst metro has been off. So they haven't fixed it to enable the northern trains to operate

(14 Jan 2016, 12:06 pm)ifm001 wrote Northern rail services have been operating all 3 days whilst metro has been off. So they haven't fixed it to enable the northern trains to operate

(24 Jan 2016, 4:57 pm)DanPicken wrote The Metro will be off between Shiremoor and Tynemouth between Saturday 19th March to Saturday 2nd April for Modernisation. It will also be of March 5/6 and March 12/3 and July 23 to August 6. I believe the 2 weekends in March are Shiremoor to Tynemouth but the 15 days one in Summer is somewhere else. Info from Sort Out The Metro (Official) where someone got a letter from Metro/Nexus.

(26 Jan 2016, 5:22 pm)DanPicken wrote Pallion is closed and trains will not be stopping at this station until further notice. This is due to a problem with the power supply. We will update you once we have more information.

(26 Jan 2016, 5:53 pm)Michael wrote Jesus, why don't they just renew the whole lot, nothing but trouble that line!

(26 Jan 2016, 10:45 pm)Bus_User wrote Errr No... Unless your willing to accept paying money for a line that opened just under 14 years ago... 

There does seem to be quite a few power supply problems(which don't affect the OHL, just the stations electrical equipment) lately, no idea the cause behind it but obviously the worse time of year for them to occur with the dark nights.

(26 Jan 2016, 10:45 pm)Bus_User wrote Errr No... Unless your willing to accept paying money for a line that opened just under 14 years ago... 

There does seem to be quite a few power supply problems(which don't affect the OHL, just the stations electrical equipment) lately, no idea the cause behind it but obviously the worse time of year for them to occur with the dark nights.

(26 Jan 2016, 10:49 pm)Michael wrote Err i meant the power supplies and stuff, not the track.

I don't think we'll find out the problem, they'll just deny it amd blame others like they do now...


New trains should be on the list next...which they won't be... they'll want to replace the track again... haha

(27 Jan 2016, 12:38 am)Bus_User wrote Well yes the track will need replacing otherwise you will risk of having speed restrictions all over the place otherwise giving just how old the track is in some parts of the system, especially on the North Tyneside side of the system hence the works that will go on this spring and summer. 

Obviously a new fleet of trains are currently being planned but unfortunately it will be down to the government whether they will approve plans for a fleet of new trains, and even if they do, it will still be many years before we see them into service and I think having them in service between 2023-25 is optimistic to say the least. 

Of course, a new fleet of trains should of been planned well before the system was privitised, it still annoys me that Mike Parker(director general of Nexus at the time) back in 2005 was more interested in too ambitious plans of street tram running mixed in with the current metro lines instead of planning on the current infrastructure. Of course if Project Orpheus was approved then maybe we would a fleet of new vehicles now but as I say, the plans were too ambitious, probably too costly and in my view a total waste of time.

(26 Jan 2016, 10:45 pm)Bus_User wrote Errr No... Unless your willing to accept paying money for a line that opened just under 14 years ago... 

There does seem to be quite a few power supply problems(which don't affect the OHL, just the stations electrical equipment) lately, no idea the cause behind it but obviously the worse time of year for them to occur with the dark nights.

(26 Jan 2016, 10:49 pm)Michael wrote Err i meant the power supplies and stuff, not the track.

I don't think we'll find out the problem, they'll just deny it amd blame others like they do now...


New trains should be on the list next...which they won't be... they'll want to replace the track again... haha

(29 Jan 2016, 7:59 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote My opinion is the non standard type of OLE that's only used on Tramways in Mainland Europe.



Power supplies will not be replaced for the certain future unless reliability gets worse than it currently is.

Though the majority of track between Pelaw and Sunderland will be life expired in 2 years, Having been new in 1978 though a section between Pelaw and Fellgate was replaced in 2014.