New price cap for Tyne and Wear Metro single tickets
The cost of a single journey on the Tyne and Wear Metro will be capped at £2.50 – in what is being branded the biggest change to the network’s ticketing for 20 years.
The cost of a single journey on the Tyne and Wear Metro will be capped at £2.50 – in what is being branded the biggest change to the network’s ticketing for 20 years.
North East mayor Kim McGuinness has confirmed plans to introduce the new price limit for all passengers using a Pop pay as you go smart card to travel.
If signed off by the North East Combined Authority’s (NECA) cabinet next week, it will come into force on April 1 – alongside a £5 cap on a full day’s travel with a Pop card.
Bosses hope that the move, which will cost the mayor’s office £1 million to subsidise for a year, will make the Metro a cheaper and more attractive option for many people, following warnings that it is at risk of becoming unsustainable if it does not grow its income.
Some other fares are set to rise, however – including a 4.6% hike in season ticket prices, a £3 rise in the cost of the pensioners’ Gold Card, and increases on the Shields Ferry.
The £2.50 cap policy, which mirrors the region’s offer on single bus fares, will apply across all of the rail network’s four fare zones – including the Northumberland Line. A one-zone single ticket will cost £2.20, with tickets across multiple zones capped at £2.50.
While that will be a 20p increase for a one-zone ticket compared to current Pop prices, it represents a saving of up to £1.30 for a single journey across multiple zones.
It will also become up to £2.60 cheaper to use a Pop card to make a trip than purchasing a paper ticket, the maximum cost of which will jump up to £5.10.
The changes will mean that someone making a return trip to Newcastle from South Shields, Sunderland, or Whitley Bay to work, shop, or enjoy a night out could do so for £5 – when that would currently cost £5.20 with a Pop card or £6.70 on a paper ticket.
Other proposals going before the NECA cabinet on February 3 include:
Paper Metro tickets increasing in price – from £3 to £3.20 for a one zone adult single, from £4 to £4.30 for two zones, and from £4.70 to £5.10 for and all-zone ticket. The cost of a one-zone paper adult day ticket will go up from £4.60 to £4.80, a two-zone from £5.80 to £6.10, and an all-zone from £6.70 to £7.00.
A rise in the price of the Metro Gold Card, which gives unlimited off-peak travel for pensioners and customers with disabilities, from £15 to £18 for Tyne and Wear residents;
All Metro season tickets increasing by an average of 4.6%;
All fares for young people being frozen at current rates for 2026/27;
Shields Ferry single ticket prices increasing by 20p for paper tickets to £2.80 and 10p for Pay as You Go to £1.70, with day tickets increasing by 20p for Pay as You Go to £3 and 10p to £4.20 for a paper ticket.
Overall, Nexus said the proposals averaged a 1.5% rise in fares.
The news comes amid significant concerns over the state of Metro operator Nexus’ finances recently.
Citing pressures caused by inflation and patronage not recovering to pre-Covid levels, the publicly-owned organisation is having to spend more than £25 million of its reserves in order to balance the books between 2025 and 2029 – a position which finance chiefs say “just isn’t sustainable” in the long-term.
Nexus managing director Cathy Massarella warned last November that Nexus needed to “maximise” revenue from tickets and elsewhere in order to close a multi-million pound deficit, telling councillors that train services would become “unsustainable” without action to boost income.
Initial budget plans assumed that Metro fares would have to jump in line with inflation this year.
But, following the confirmation of a freeze on national rail fares for the first time in 20 years, Ms McGuinness has been keen to come up with a new offer for Metro users.
The Labour mayor said on Monday that she agreed with passengers that the cost of using the Metro is “too high”.
She added: “I want everyone in the North East to be able to use public transport so we need to make it cheaper. That’s why I’m bringing the Mayor’s Fares to Metro, capping single tickets at £2.50 no matter how many zones you travel.
“I’ll continue to do everything I can to cut costs for local people. This will mark the biggest change to Metro pricing in years and will make getting to work or education far more affordable.”
Nexus finance and resources director John Fenwick described the new fares as a “game changer for our customers, delivering the most affordable Metro travel that we’ve been able to offer for many years”.
He said: “These proposed changes aim to keep Metro affordable, encourage smartcard adoption, and support people with the rising cost-of-living.
“A price freeze for young people, which meets the region-wide ambitions to make public transport more affordable for them, is also proposed to be continued.
“Other fares, including paper and season tickets, need to increase to help us address the challenges of higher operational costs. However, we feel that we have put forward a balanced set of fare proposals.
“Metro is a public service that doesn’t make a profit, and we require support from the mayor and the combined authority, alongside the revenue that we generate from fares, to keep the system running.”