Better Bus Routes [and Metro] For Newcastle's West End

The West End Deserves Better Transport Links

For many years now the West End of Newcastle has been getting a raw deal, particularly in respect to public transport. At it’s inception, we were promised that the Tyne & Wear Metro Transport System would be extended to the West End at some point in the future. Existing rail tracks extend from the city centre out to Wylam and the gorgeous countryside beyond, yet these plans have never came into fruition. Why? Surely, this investment would garner thousands more commuter and leisure travellers and hence more revenue? And, dare I say… more jobs!

More recently, hundreds of terraced streets were bulldozed and families were displaced to make way for the much anticipated plans to modernise the area and we were sold the idea of the exalted Scotswood Masterplan Expo (http://www.rudi.net/books/20062). In this plan, tram systems were even promised. Eventually, the Expo plans, all the promised transport links and new improved services were shelved and the flattened land was sold to the usual Legoland Builders and The Rise was built instead.

I, like many Westenders do, used to work at the Metrocentre. If I stand on the flat roof of my kitchen extension, I can see it, just across the river. Many people in Benwell can even see it from their front windows. From my home, it takes four minutes to get there by car but my commute took an hour or (usually) more because there is not one single bus route that directly connects areas like Denton Burn, Benwell, Fenham and Elswick to the Metrocentre. We have to trundle East into town and then out West again to get there, yet, Scotswood Bridge is the nearest crossing.

This is a disgrace and highlights the lack of concern shown to the people of the West End. Indeed, it is an area, where there are fewer cars than in the East End, meaning that there is a GREATER NEED for better transport links and services.

I actually lived nearer to work than most of the people in my company, yet my commute was twice, sometimes thrice, as long as theirs AND cost more. That added time and expense is understandable if you live far away from your place of work. However, when you can see your destination from your starting bus stop… it’s infuriating.

THIRTY SEVEN YEARS after the Tyne & Wear Metro began service, we STILL have nothing even comparable in the West End. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wear/hi/front_page/newsid_8897000/8897974.stm)

THIRTY ONE YEARS after the Metrocentre was opened we STILL have no direct bus services to get there.

Why have we allowed ourselves to be disregarded and passed over like this for so long?

I live the same distance from the city centre as my friend who lives in Gosforth. He can get everywhere quicker (and often more cheaply) than me, even the Metrocentre, which is substantially closer to me than him.

A wealthy Jag owner living in Jesmond can flash his theatre ticket on the Metro and get a FREE Metro journey to the Theatre Royal. Yet I, someone on minimum wage, have to pay my bus fare to and from the same show as normal. How is that fair? (http://www.nexus.org.uk/metro/offers/theatre-royal)

It's time we stood up for ourselves and made our opinions heard where they matter. We must let the Metrocentre, our local transport companies and our local councillors and MP’s know that we are sick and tired of being given a lesser deal than those in the East End. From there, you can hop a Metro to the Airport, to the city centre and the coast. The entire region is on their ‘doorstep’ so-to-speak. The Metrocentre is on our ‘doorstep’ but it may as well be on the moon. This is all so wrong!

We need our representatives to fight for better services on our behalf and to keep the ever-promised Metro system extension in the public conversation, especially when they’re campaigning for our votes. We must demand better access to local amenities such as the Metrocentre and the Airport.

We deserve better. Let's start asking for it.

FAO: Intu Metrocentre, Stagecoach North East, Nexus Tyne & Wear, Chi Onwurah, Lord Jeremy Beecham, Rob Higgins, Hazel Stephenson, Simon Bird, Melissa Davis, Daniel Greenhough, Dipu Ahad, Habib Rahman, Ann Schofield, Karen Kilgour, Marion Talbot, Ian Tokell.