There will be no services for nine days on a busy section off the Tyne and Wear Metro in the Manors area of Newcastle whilst repairs are made to bridges and tunnels.

Services will be suspended between Wallsend and St James in Newcastle between Saturday, 24th August and Sunday, 1st September.

A frequent replacement bus service, 900, will replace trains between those stations, and call at or near all Metro stations on the route.

The line will re-open on Monday, 2nd September.

The closure is necessary as Nexus, the public body that runs Metro, carries a £1.7m programme of bridge and tunnel modernisation work.

Bridges over the Metro lines at Stoddart Street and New Bridge Street will be grit blasted, the steelwork will be repaired, the bridges will be waterproofed and repainted, and the road resurfaced.

Nexus is investing £43m in Metro infrastructure modernisation schemes this year, and since 2010 it has invested £446m in infrastructure renewal, commissioned a £362m new train fleet, and dualled three key sections of the Metro in the £104m Metro Flow project.

The works will be carried out on behalf of Nexus by specialist engineering and construction company, Amco-Giffen.

Since 2010, Nexus has:

• Refurbished 35 stations.
• Renewed or refurbished 65km of track and 52 switches and crossings.
• Replaced 52 sets of points motors.
• Installed 6.5km of track drainage.
• Refurbished 33km of cable troughing.
• Replaced 85km of signalling cables.
• Carried out structural repairs to 62 bridges
• Completely replaced three 3 bridges.
• Removed and in-filled five bridges.
• Replaced 27 escalators and 12 lifts.
• Acquired a new rail tamping machine.
• Repaired 2km of earthworks.
• Replaced 65km of overhead lines.
• Replaced help points, the public address system, and 500 CCTV cameras.
• Installed a new Radio System.
• Installed a new Rail Traffic Management System.

This nine-day major closure forms part of our ongoing multi-million pound programme of investment in Metro modernisation work.

The focus of this project is on three bridges which need to undergo vital structural repair works and waterproofing. We will also be working on the entrance of the Metro tunnel near Manors, carrying out structural works.

While there is no good time to close a large section of the Metro system, the works will improve Metro’s resilience in the future.  We will do all we can to keep any disturbance to an absolute minimum, and I apologise in advance for the inconvenience this will cause.

Customers will be provided with frequent replacement bus services throughout this work and need to allow a bit of extra time to make their journey in the area where the line is closed.

Stuart Clarke, Metro Infrastructure Director