Relief as Metro to get funds for crucial upgrade

ESSENTIAL WORKS NEEDED ON SIGNALLING SYSTEM

- By DANIEL HOLLAND

THE Government will pay for an essential upgrade to prevent the Tyne and Wear Metro suffering a catastrophic shutdown.

North East transport chiefs have been pushing ministers to back a £400m replacement of the Metro's outdated signalling system, a "safety critical" asset dating back to the 1970s and without which the Metro cannot operate.

Bosses have warned that a failure to update the infrastructure by 2030 would put the rail network at risk of being completely crippled, an embarrassing prospect given the £362m public investment into its long-awaited new fleet of trains and the plans to extend the Metro to Washington.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has now confirmed that it "will be funding the upgrade", saying that the project would "enhance journey times, improve reliability and safety, and enable future expansion of the network".