Stumbled upon this late last night because I had been contemplating walking to work instead of the Metro.

These tunnels are closing sometime in the near future for 12 months to allow refurbishment and the public will be given one month notice. There will be a free shuttle bus service operating up to every 20 minutes. I immediately assumed that the cycle-friendly Lime buses by Go North East would be used, but apparently a cycle trailer towed by the shuttle bus will accommodate 16 bikes at a time instead.

I'm not sure if normal public service vehicles can carry trailers? I would imagine it would be a small minibus that runs the service to save on costs.

Full details can be found here -

http://www.tynepedestrianandcyclisttunnels.co.uk/faqs/

It'll cost a fortune on top of what they'd already set aside for the project to remove the asbestos completely. I'm really surprised it wasn't budgeted in the first place.

A few photos taken back in May:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrahamm/8828686004/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrahamm/8828684790/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrahamm/8828705646/

I might have a look out on that next week. Sure sense of deja vu with the old Metrolink buses

More asbestos has been found during the refurbishment of the Tyne Pedestrian & Cycle Tunnel. The combined authority have indicated that the tunnel will not open until summer 2017 at the earliest.
What was planned as a 1 year project now looks to be running towards 5 years.

This is a disgrace. Fancy thinking a building like thus wouldn't have asbestos!

Building a new one would've been quicker. I know just the place for the spoil too...