Simonside station on the Tyne and Wear Metro system opened to passengers on Monday (17 March 2008).
The £3.2m project - including an £800,000 contribution from the European Regional Development Fund - provides the residents of Simonside with five trains an hour in each direction - towards South Shields and Newcastle and Gateshead.
Major building work on the site is complete with Balfour Beatty, the main contractor for passenger transport executive and Metro operator Nexus, applying finishing touches to the station ahead of the scheduled opening.
Simonside is the 60th station to open on the Tyne and Wear Metro network, which is now nearly 28 years old. The opening of Simonside, which was previously expected to open in autumn 2007, comes two years after Nexus opened a new Metro station at Northumberland Park (Transport Briefing 14/12/05), on North Tyneside, which has been used by more than a million passengers.
Director general of Nexus, Bernard Garner, said: Im pleased to announce that we are ready to open our new Metro station at Simonside on 17 March. Metro will greatly improve public transport links in the local area. The station will serve a large residential area offering five trains in each direction per hour during the day direct to South Shields town centre, Gateshead, Sunderland, and into Newcastle city centre.
The station will help local people gain access to work, learning opportunities, health care, shopping and other activities and essential amenities. Its particularly good news for local residents who dont have a car and rely on public transport to get around.
The development forms the first part of ambitious plans for the future of the Metro system. Nexus is seeking £600m to modernise the system over 20 years.
Proposals for South Tyneside include dualling the track to Pelaw, rebuilding South Shields station with new enclosed waiting areas, introducing a new fleet of trains and new ticketing machines and electronic ticket barriers using the latest technology.
