Metro announces timetable cuts amid driver shortage

Services will run every half hour early in the morning before moving to 15-minute intervals

The Tyne and Wear Metro system has announced a reduced winter timetable will begin this month in response to driver shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Services will run at a reduced frequency from Sunday 29 November while 30 drivers complete their training.

Operator Nexus said it had not been able to do so earlier this year as lockdown saw assessment centres closed.

Bosses said the decision had not been taken "lightly".

Transport chiefs had warned in September staff numbers would be up to 13% below the levels needed to run a full timetable, even before factoring in staff sickness.

The new programme will be in place until March with trains offering a "good level of service", according to Nexus.

Early morning trains will run every 30 minutes before increasing to every 15 minutes from about 07:00 GMT.

'Severely impacted'

Peak-time services through Newcastle city centre and Gateshead will run every seven minutes on weekdays from 07:00 to 18:00 GMT.

Metro operations director Chris Carson said: "Reducing services is the last thing that we want to do, and it's not a decision that we take lightly, but training has been so severely impacted by lockdown that we need to implement a winter timetable.

"The reality is that train crew availability is lower than what we need it to be.

"The extra staff that we were due to bring in were unable to go through the required aptitude tests when national assessment centres were closed in March.

"Since the testing centres reopened in August we do now have a record number of new drivers in training. These training schools got under way in September and they will take six months to complete."

Metro said the 30 trainee drivers form the "largest single intake" since the transport system began running in 1980.