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.
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