- Transport in Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear is the metropolitan area which includes all ofSunderland and Newcastle. However, Tyne and Wear is not an urban area as there are large green spaces between Newcastle and Sunderland. There is currently a large transportation system in Tyne and Wear, which includes a metro system, a bus network and anairport .Nexus are thePassenger Transport Executive responsible for transport in Tyne and Wear.Rail Transport
History
Newcastle arguably had the world's first local railway, the
Newcastle & North Shields Railway (N&NSR), which opened in June 1839. The N&NSR opened between North Shields and Carliol Square in Newcastle. It was later extended to Tynemouth, which allowed through trains from theBlyth & Tyne Railway to run. The railway was also extended toNewcastle Central station , which opened in 1845. Most of the railway was closed in 1973.Metro
The
Tyne and Wear Metro , also known simply as the Metro, is a metro system which connects Newcastle to Sunderland. The network opened in 1980, and in 2005-2006 provided 36.6 million public journeys on its route of nearly 78 kilometres (48 miles). A large part of the network uses the old main line on theNewcastle & North Shields Railway .The Metro system currently consists of two lines:
* Green line -Newcastle Airport to South Hylton via Newcastle upon Tyne city centre,Gateshead,Sunderland city centre and continuing on toSouth Hylton .
* Yellow line - St James to South Shields viaNorth Shields , Tynemouth, Whitley Bay, then looping back on itself and going south via the city centre again to Gateshead, the Jarrow and South Shields.Current Services
Newcastle Central station is a key stop on theEast Coast Main Line . Passenger services are operated by several companies:*
National Express East Coast trains run south toLondon King's Cross viaYork ,Doncaster andPeterborough ; and north toEdinburgh Waverley ,Glasgow Central ,Aberdeen andInverness .
*CrossCountry services run south to theirBirmingham New Street hub viaYork ,Leeds /Doncaster andDerby and onwards toBournemouth viaOxford andReading ;Plymouth ,Penzance orCardiff Central viaCheltenham Spa andBristol Temple Meads ; and north toEdinburgh Waverley ,Glasgow Central andAberdeen .
*First TransPennine Express trains run toManchester Airport andLiverpool Lime Street viaYork ,Leeds ,Huddersfield andManchester Piccadilly .
*First ScotRail operates daily services toGlasgow Central andStranraer along the Tyne Valley and Glasgow South Western Lines viaCarlisle andDumfries .
*Northern Rail operates local and regional services; north along theEast Coast Main Line toMorpeth andChathill ; south along theDurham Coast Line toSunderland ,Middlesbrough andNunthorpe (plus a limited service via theEast Coast Main Line toDarlington and onwards along theTees Valley Line to [Middlesbrough] andSaltburn ); and west along theTyne Valley Line toMetroCentre ,Hexham ,Carlisle andWhitehaven .Sunderland station which opened in 1879. The current regional operator Northern Rail provides an off-peak service of one train per hour betweenSunderland andNewcastle in both directions, with many trains also running to theMetroCentre shopping centre,Hexham ,Carlisle andMiddlesbrough .The service to
Newcastle Central Station is now considered an express service, calling only at Heworth, which is also served by the Metro, but the lines are segregated at this point. The former stopping service (which called at Seaburn, East Boldon and Brockley Whins) is now provided only by the Metro.In January 2006 new operator
Grand Central was granted permission to run four trains per day from Sunderland to London Kings Cross. Grand Central began running services on 18 December 2007.Air Travel
Newcastle Airport is the tenth busiestairport in theUnited Kingdom . Destinations served includeGalway ,Paris ,Dublin ,Newquay ,Plymouth ,Toronto ,London ,Copenhagen ,Brussels ,Aberdeen ,Birmingham ,Cardiff ,Isle of Man ,Southampton ,Stavanger ,Alicante ,Barcelona ,Belfast ,Bristol ,Geneva ,Faro ,Ibiza ,Kraków ,Mahon ,Málaga ,Murcia ,Nice ,Palma de Mallorca ,Prague ,Rome-Ciampino ,Dubai ,Aberdeen ,Exeter ,Jersey ,Limoges ,Rennes ,Arrecife ,Corfu ,Cork ,Pisa ,Rhodes ,Tenerife ,Düsseldorf ,Hannover ,Girona ,Milan and many more places.The airport is connected to Newcastle by a half hourly bus service and by metro.
Bus Services
Operating from the hubs of Eldon Square Bus Station and Haymarket Bus Station, Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding area has an extensive bus network that is coordinated by Nexus. Buses are operated mainly by
Arriva Northumbria ,Go North East andStagecoach North East .QuayLink is a hybrid electric bus service operated to the Quayside.Road
Major roads in the area include the A1 (Gateshead Newcastle Western Bypass), stretching north to Edinburgh and south to London; the A19 heading south past Sunderland and Middlesbrough to York and Doncaster; the A69 heading west to Carlisle; the A167, the old Great North Road, heading south to Gateshead, Chester-le-Street, Durham and Darlington; and the A1058 Coast Road, which runs from Jesmond to the east coast between Tynemouth and Cullercoats. Many of these designations are recent—upon completion of the Western Bypass, and its designation as the new line of the A1, the roads between this and the former line through the Tyne Tunnel were renumbered, with many city centre roads changing from a 6-prefix to their present 1-prefix numbers.
Water Travel
Newcastle has access to an international Ferry Terminal, at North Shields, which offers services to destinations including
Amsterdam ,Stavanger ,Haugesund andBergen .
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