(United Kingdom )NEWCASTLE

Images kindly supplied by Nexus. (Thanks)
Queen Elizabeth II Bridge	Haymarket	South Hylton
Gateshead Interchange Northumberland Park St Peter's

Newcastle
Newcastle developed in the early years '80s a LRT network (Tyne and Wear Metro), partly recovering dismissed or under utilized local railways tracks. Even if this systems has some underground sections through the main urbanized areas, the track is mostly ground level in segregated lanes (with level crossing protection at the crossroads). Tyne and Wear Metro original line has been extended in the years: among the new segments, the Airport branch (1991) and the Sunderland extension (2002) must be mentioned.
A long term program (till 2018, in 3 phases) has been set up in order to invest a total amount of 600 millions Pounds in the modernization of infrastructures and plants, new stops and modern rolling stock.
Tyneandwearmetro (official site)

CHRONOLOGY
11-08-1980	Haymarket-Monkseaton-Tynemouth
10-05-1981	South Gosforth-Bank Foot
15-11-1981	Haymarket-Heworth
14-11-1982	St. James-Manors-Tynemouth
25-03-1984	Heworth-South Shields
17-11-1991	Bank Foot-Airport
31-03-2002	Pelaw-South Hylton
11-12-2005	Northumberland Park stop
17-03-2008	Simonside stop

Country	United Kingdom
Line	Tyne&Wear Metro
Inhabitants	City 260.000, District 1.074.000
Date opening	1980 Future development:	--
Length (km)	74
Track sections	mostly ground level (19 km on elder or under utilized railway tracks), 6,1 km underground
Stops	60, average distance m 1200
Platforms	--
Platform doors	--
General characteristics	height cm 90
n. of vehicles	90
n. of cars per vehicle	1/2
Type	steel wheels bi-directional
Vehicle dimensions (m)	length 27.6, width 2.65 (1 car)
Vehicle capacity (pax)	200 (84 seated)
Frequency	2.5/7.5 min
Current/Voltage	1500 V DC overhead
Type of guide/gauge	standard gauge rails (1435 mm)
Speed Km/h	Comm --, Max 80
Accel./Decel. (m/sec2)	1.0/1.3
System capacity	--
Ridership	40 millions pax/year
Total cost	6 M £/km
Staff	600
System builder	ALSTOM
Model	--
NOTE	former Metro Camel system (now Alstom)