And...a more cut down commuter rail

As I mentioned many metro station should be skipped on the prior idea. Here is a more cut down and 'proper' version.
This still isn't the most conservative version (knock out Spennymoor and a few of the extra commuter stops in smaller places for that, e.g. Blackhall) but there we go.

I wonder what the final outcome will be when Blyth and Ashington finally do get their train stations.
It seems likely that Leamside will be reopened in Washington giving it a mainline train station too (unfortunately) so perhaps a single route which avoids Chester-Le-Street and the ECML and instead runs through Washington then onwards to either Sunderland or Durham and finally Boro?

Commuter Rail

As I've mentioned in prior posts there is a lot of talk these days about giving Blyth and Ashington rail links to Newcastle. Many (primarily from Blyth and Ashington) would like this to be a metro link however the distance involved is just too great for this to be viable. On the other hand, the distance is too short and the route too well used for just a regular train service.

So, here we have it, North East Commuter Rail.
Not actually a metro system however branded like one and with services more regular than a standard train (though nowhere near metro frequencies).

The map as presented here is very much one of 'maximum extent'. Not even ideal world but a map of where the lines should go.
Ideal worldly I would not service so many metro stations, they get good enough service already from the metro afterall and its unlikely many people travelling from Ashington will want to go to Newcastle residential areas. Only one or two of these outer stations should be serviced with the priority instead being to get to the city centre as fast as possible.

In addition to the Ashington-Newcastle link it also seemed to make sense to me to have better service linking Chester-Le-Street to Newcastle...and if you're going that far why not Durham? And from there it balooned into a north east wide network, linking up the Tees Valley metro and the Tyne-Wear metro.

Generally this map follows existing lines- sorry Blyth, but your town is just too far away from them and I had to serve the rim- however one small exception was made south of Durham for the large and unfairly isolated town of Spennymoor.

As I've said this is largely ideal worldly however the government does seriously want to build stations in Blyth and Ashington (and Washington but...that conflicts with my prior ideas and I've already established I don't like it!) and this seems the best way to do so.

A semi-metro...the bastard child of metro and rail.

Official word!

A departure from my normal posts here; some official news on metro expansions.
Sort of.
Project Orpheus seems to be getting a second wind. As found here (PDF) this image shows improvments the Metro managers would like to make. Given the new Tory government I'm doubtful of any of them coming true which is...not too massively dissapointing to be honestly. These improvments aren't great; just what is the obsession with trams?

Anyway. Lets have a look at what they want in no particular order. Little explanation is given in the document so this is largely just guess work on my part.

Superoute:

Despite the name this to me seems to be the most boring of proposals. Given that the superroutes run down to Stanley and Consett and the like this seems to be just a regular bus service. Perhaps just the already existing X busses, maybe an improvment on service with them.
What is odd here though is that the super route is all that links Chester-Le-Street: despite this town being on the east coast mainline with its own train station. Why isn't Chester put in with the rail mentions?

Tram:

I do like trams in Europe, they're rather brilliant in cities like Amsterdam and Prague. Having had the misfortune of visiting Edinburgh many times in the past few years though I've grown rather against them in Britain. With roads not designed for them which also have to handle cars I have to wonder what is the point a little.
The proposed tram routes here... well I must say I do love the little diversion down to Walker, this 'forgotten triangle' down my the river is something which could really do with service having missed out on the metro line. Given how hilly it is down that way a tram would be particularly nice and useful.
The Metro Centre and Team Valley tram route is also interesting. Though I have to wonder here: Why don't they go with the rail route? The tracks are already there and the distance is a bit far for trams is it not?
Newcastle West End- Well, it saves costly tunneling for a metro expansion and there are a lot of people here. A tram would be useful given that a metro expansion would be very costly and difficult. However the key question in my mind is based on my Edinburgh experience...Aren't the roads already a bit full and small up there? How will a tram be any better than a bus?
Sunderland- The same comments as with the west end apply here. Service into the depths of the city would be great. With Sunderland I am most keen on the tram idea, they have a very underdeveloped part of the Metro network here and a tram could give the city good public transport for a cheaper price than a metro expansion (though I do still stand by my earlier proposed one!)
What I do find very odd here in Sunderland though is that the tram seems to run from South Shields, along the railway/metro line and then follows the coast line down to Seaham. Why on Earth use a tram to replicate a already existing railway route here?
One worrying possibility is they could be planning to downgrade the entire Metro system into trams. Which would not be good at all....
Cramlington- See the latter parts of my Sunderland comments. They're essentially going over the east coast mainline with a tram here. Why? That it stops at Four Lane Ends rather than following the line into the city centre is encouraging here, it points away from a total conversion. But still...this route seems wrong.

Guided/Segregated Bus:

Ouch. Segregated. Blacks in the back!... Or probally not. But the name does seem to point that way. This probally means bus lanes and...well. Like everyone in the country excepting taxi and bus drivers I hate bus lanes.
Guided bus on the other hand...I've never came across these before. The closest I've seen are those busses that run off tram cables in Geneva but that isn't waht this is at all. Rather it seems to be a bus that runs partially on a track and partially as a regular bus. Which is odd. Though intruiging as something to run partially on the existing system and then move off- this technology could be handy inside the eastern Newcastle loop. Here though the routes seem to be largely ignoring existing metro lines hence the question 'why?' appears.
I've nothing too special to say on the routes here except that they seem to be using this to ignore Washington when it comes to the good stuff again.

Rail Developments:

Now this is interesting. A big question is though are these rail developments to the metro or just general national railway developments?
A development of the line running west to the Metro Centre seems to be on, which is just great, it goes all the way to Prudhoe though, which given its distance would seem to suggest to me this is not the metro but rather just regular trains.
In the north the much talked about passengerisation of the Ashington line is also on, again though I believe this has been talked about as a regular train route and not the metro.
You never know though, this could be as part of a 'semi-metro' given the way they seem to be expanding into lots of other areas of transport.
The one big oddity with this railway extension is rebuilding the railway on from South Hylton and into the fields towards Penshaw where it says 'possible connection to Leamside Line'....To me this seems to suggest the Leamside Line reactivation could already have been approved and be underway? Interesting but odd.

Small changes

So! Back to the Newcastle Metro!
This has been a long time in the making due to life commitments more important than my strange little interest.

There are very few changes to this map, just the addition of Ryton onto the blue line- whilst the blue line in general before was an 'easy extension' which just involved improving already existing railway tracks with a extra lane or two this addition involves a bit of actual new track. Though not much. Just a divergance from the Carlisle line to go closer to the town centre and give this large town access to the network.

Also planned for this edit was incorporating the local railway into the map.
I had the idea that local rail routes should be given far greater public attention, as things stand now its just as hard to get a train from Newcastle to Prudhoe as it is to go all the way down to London. These local routes should be given a unified branding and tied in very closely with the metro- all trains from Hexham, Pegswood and Ashington in should unquestionably be given this system. This would largely I'd imagine take the form of just better awareness and integrated pricing with the existing trains however for some routes a 'semi-metro' could be useful- with Ashington in particular I would lean this way, its a bit too far away for the proper metro however it does deserve regular service when it gets its railway connection opened.
In the south this link should go to Durham at the least however the government has made many rumblings recently about a better north east railway line connecting Teeside and Tyne and Wear- this sounds good to me so I would also integrate to a degree down to Middlesbrough on both the Durham-Darlington-Boro line and the Sunderland-Peterlee (which needs a station! That a town this big on a railway line doesn't is very odd)- Hartlepool-Boro line.