Newcastle West End- Here comes the hard bit

The west end of Newcastle is probably the area most in need of metro access; very densely inhabited and the people there have the metro right under their noses given good transport service to their neighbours in the centre, east and north of the city. The west enders are only ones in the town left to their own devices. And giving the hilly nature of much of the west end of town this isn't particularly nice.

Many of the same reasons which make the west end of Newcastle a desirable place for the metro however are also big factors in making any such extension very difficult (and costly) and therefore not done.

There's little way around it really. A decent west end extension will be costly and can't be so easily done with above ground track as with the other extensions I have mooted.

A few ideas for what route this extension could follow:

1: From central station head down to the Arena then out to Scotswood, crossing a bridge and then looping back to the Metro Centre.
This route is one which really should have been implemented early in the history of the metro system. There was once a railway line which ran along this route with the Scotswood Railway Bridge still being a visible reminder of its existence.
Today however...This route really isn't the best.

Railway lines do still exist coming out from central station and extending all the way to Water Street in Rye Hill. An Arena station fitted onto this would be a very good thing to have today, the Arena being a popular entertainment venue and several other businesses existing in that end of town. There is also talk of redeveloping the area massively to place more businesses (a casino is the main one I remember) around a possibly rebuilt Arena.

The trouble is...There's nowhere really worth stopping after here.
Relaying the track west of where it terminates today wouldn't be too difficult, the old location of the line is still visible along much of its former route. Newcastle Buisness Park is next which could also be a nice place for a station but this river hugging area is generally very sparse, passing well south of the dense residential areas such as Benwell.
Scotswood, our 'destination' on this leg of the line is not a big place. It used to be bigger, looking at photos from just the 2000s reveals a lot of terraced housing which has since been demolished.
Perhaps redevelopment(i.e. resurrection) of this area in co-ordination with a metro extension could be done but as things stand its not great.

If we were to decide not to cross the Scotswood Railway Bridge (a wise choice as this would make us miss Blaydon station and central Blaydon as a whole) then we could get some good use from this line by going further to Lemington and Southern Denton or perhaps with a large west and north loop Walbottle and West Denton.

This route though really not the best is not completely without merit especially if followed as part of a dedicated western riverside redevelopment but still. Its not the best.

2: Branching of the aiport line at some point to take in the western end of the west end. This could be done either through following the A1 southwards after Fawdon and heading deep into the west end or by skimming the western edge of Newcastle after Bank Foot.
This method though possible overland probably wouldn't give the best service however. To get to the city centre (very likely the most popular destination) the metro would have to follow this northwards skimming route whereas buses could just head there directly. The metro could well end up actually being slower than a bus if the traffic is right. It certainly would never be enough of an improvement to be worthwhile.

3: The most sensible tunneling extension which really should be done even if the others are not is a new station on the west end of the new science park development (old location of the brewery).
From here I would then recommend following the West Road up deep into the west end linking up the General Hospital area and Benwell. Then we've a bit of a option, turning north and linking more of Fenham, Cowgate and Kenton or (my favoured choice) continuing ever westwards to Denton.
Again there's another choice: the more aesthetically pleasing on a map heading south to make a metro centre loop or just having the yellow line stop further west than it currently does.

The big trouble here which I'm sure you've realised is there is very little open space in this direction. We need underground track.
Now, this could be done through typical tunneling but this is very difficult and takes a very long time.
I would more recommend cut and cover.
The West Road should be wide enough for this- perhaps if we're very lucky we could even just dig sections and then drop the tunnel in.
The West Road of course will experience a lot of upheaval whilst this building is going on. Even with the most ideal method of dropping tunnels in its very unlikely we could do the work entirely over night and open the road the next morning- or rather its quite unlikely we could do that and very very unlikely the health and safety people would allow it.

Nonetheless I think this is a sacrifice worth making. People can find other routes to work and the long term benefits to the west end will be enormous.

4: Taking aspects of 2 and 3 we could take the option of heading north into Fenham then towards the A1 following track and linking after Fawdon.
This route would be a lot more useful than a flat 2 and give access to areas 3 doesn't. Additionally loops do look great on a map.
The problems I see here are two-fold.
Firstly, much of the route would be a duplication of the already existing green line. A three fold duplication with the yellow line added in on the Gosforth-Monument leg.
Secondly, it would involve just as much difficult tunneling as sticking entirely to the west road and would involve tunneling under narrower and curvier roads.
This could perhaps be an advantage; the smaller roads mean less traffic disruption. But it could also give us less of a 'production line' in tunnel construction.