Tyne and Wear Metro to be publicly run by Nexus

The Metro is one of the busiest urban rail systems outside London

The operation of the Tyne and Wear Metro has been returned to the public body Nexus.

German company DB Regio took over running the system from Nexus in 2010 but has consistently failed to hit punctuality targets.

The firm has been penalised by £4.4m over the seven years and its contract has not been renewed. It has been approached for comment.

However, Nexus managing director Tobyn Hughes said the service was improving.

"Although it has undoubtedly had one or two moments of difficulty, generally the contract has gone well," he said.

The system carries more than 40m passengers a year on 450 trains

"Every day around 450 trains operate on the system, carrying around 130,000 people and day in, day out this system continues to perform."

The network has seen an increasing number of complaints about poor service and low levels of customer satisfaction.

Metro's Public Transport Users group welcomed the return of Nexus, but said the existing 40-year-old trains needed to be replaced with a new fleet.

Nexus is bidding for £550m from the government to improve the system.