(10 Sep 2015, 8:06 pm)BusLoverMum wrote This.
This is what there were an awful lot of vox pop complaints about on regional news programs and in local papers on a regular basis for a long time before the Sunderland extension even became a definite maybe.
From the documents I've read, the Sunderland extension was always in the pipeline from the Metro's initial inception circa 1973, as the Local Government Act of 1972 gave power to the five main local authorities thus facilitating the formation of the county of Tyne and Wear in 1974. The main problem with converting Sunderland from heavy-light rail was that it used by both freight and other rail services to/from Teesside and beyond. The Karlsruhe model of line-sharing probably could've been implemented (and perhaps innovated here in the North East) sooner, but an arrangement was reached where the local PTE were responsible for overseeing local rail services between Sunderland and Newcastle (much like MerseyRail and the like).