-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Tyne and Wear Metro: ‘Shorts’
- Thread starter Bayum
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
arbeia
Member
Runs generally in the peak from Benton/Monkseaton to Pelaw
So named because they are short journeys through the central corridor of the network at peak times compared to the full end to end services. They provide an extra 5tph between Monkseaton and Pelaw, with the odd journey startiing and ending at Benton/Regent Centre/South Gosforth
DanNCL
Established Member
The peak shorts are the 5tph additional services that run between Monkseaton and Pelaw during peak hours, typically running 3 minutes ahead of a full route Yellow line train so as to leave space on the full route service for those travelling to/from Whitley Bay and Tynemouth. At the end of the peaks a limited number run to/from Regent Centre, South Gosforth and Benton instead, to get the train to/from Gosforth Depot. Terminating at Benton instead of Monkseaton was more common through the peak until around 2010 when the turnback sidings at Benton were removed - it's now only used at the end of service as terminating at Benton now requires a reversal at platform 1.
The peak shorts used to be much more extensive than they are now. Until a few years ago in addition to the Monkseaton services there were also 5tph between Regent Centre and Pelaw, running 3 minutes ahead of a Green line service to leave space on the full route services for those travelling to/from Sunderland and stations on the Airport line. Longer ago (before the Sunderland extension opened) there were also peak shorts between St James and North Shields, terminating in the now disused bay platform at North Shields.
The peak shorts used to be much more extensive than they are now. Until a few years ago in addition to the Monkseaton services there were also 5tph between Regent Centre and Pelaw, running 3 minutes ahead of a Green line service to leave space on the full route services for those travelling to/from Sunderland and stations on the Airport line. Longer ago (before the Sunderland extension opened) there were also peak shorts between St James and North Shields, terminating in the now disused bay platform at North Shields.
gimmea50anyday
Established Member
Basically the blue and red lines on older T&W maps
DanNCL
Established Member
4002 has made a long anticipated return to service today on the “short” workings. I believe this is the first time it has worked in revenue service in over two years.
Been back in service since the end of March, was out of service for about just a year.
It managed a couple of trips on service 110 a couple of weeks back
Don't quite get why(especially when 4040+83 was paired) they are restricted to mainly peak services when they are effectively DDA compliant. Clearly there is a reason behind it, apart from 4040(as I seen photos online) , did the other 3 unrefurbished cars had proper corrosion work done to them and its that reason why they are mainly restricted to peak workings?
I imagine it would be to do with the fact that the 4 cars in question can only couple up with each other and will not work with any of the refurbished cars. This makes rescuing them with another train impossible, calling for the battery locos, which I believe are almost never allowed down onto network rail infrastructure. A similar problem would be that they wouldn’t want an un-rescuable train to get stuck in some of the single line sections down the shields line. so Keeping it on the shorts and not going past Pelaw is the safest option. It only finds itself on a full route when there’s no other trains available to replace a withdrawn train.
DanNCL
Established Member
As far as I know 4001 and 4002 have also had the corrosion work. Not sure about 4083.
They’re compatible with the refurbished units for empty stock and rescue purposes - recovering an unrefurbished pair if they failed on the Sunderland line would be no more difficult than recovering a refurbished pair. The only reason they can’t run together in regular service is because the call for aid buttons won’t work in the rear unit of a refurbished-unrefurbished pairing. It’s quite common to see one of the unrefurbished units top and tailing the autumn RHTT with a refurbished unit.
The battery locos are able to work to South Hylton and have ventured onto the Sunderland line at least once, however as I understand this is very much a last resort rescue option.
The network rail sectional appendix suggests that there are coupler adaptors to allow Metro units to be rescued by mainline stock on the Sunderland line should all else fail.
Ahhh thanks for the info! And I’d imagine a mainline train rescuing a metro would be a day the spotters would never forget.
DanNCL
Established Member
Indeed it would! I don’t know of any occasions where it’s actually happened but, according to the sectional appendix at least, there is a procedure for it!
Could be a factor but they can fail anywhere on the system, think like Dan says they can work out of passenger service together so in theory should be able to rescue them if they fail or vice versa.
What would that look like in practice - shove it towards Pelaw to meet a battery loco there?
DanNCL
Established Member
I’m not sure.
Couple it to the front of an Azuma, get it upto 125mph and release it up the chord, it should be able to coast all the way to the depot from there.
- Status