Partner Article

North East Question Time

NEXUS, which owns and manages the Tyne and Wear Metro, is to stage a unique ‘Question Time’ event organised jointly with the Keep Metro Public campaign.

The event, to be held on the evening of Thursday, 27 May at Newcastle’s Centre For Life, will be an opportunity for the public and key stakeholders in the region to ask questions about the future of Metro.

The Question Time is being staged as Nexus begins to invest almost £400m in the modernisation of Metro and Metro starts operation under a concession for the first time.

The panel will include Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority Chairman Cllr David Wood, Nexus Director General Bernard Garner, Keep Metro Public Chair Vicki Gilbert, and Richard McClean of DB Regio Tyne and Wear, the company which has operated Metro trains and stations on behalf of Nexus since 1 April this year.

Invitations have been sent to unions, community groups and other organisations in Tyne and Wear.

Tickets for the Question Time are also available to the public, who must apply for them in advance through the website nexus.org.uk

Andy Bairstow, communications director of Nexus, said: “This is a time of great change for Metro and we wanted to provide a forum in which a wide range of people can discuss the future of the system and the way it is run.

“The audience will be asked to provide questions for the panel to answer and join in the debate on the evening itself, not just about Metro but all public transport in Tyne and Wear.”

Vicki Gilbert, chair of Keep Metro Public, added: “’We in Keep Metro Public, look forward to this opportunity to reflect on what we see as a privatisation process and for the public to question Deutsche Bahn, the new operators of the Metro.

“We also hope to hear that Deutsche Bahn will respond to the many changes for the better, which the travelling public told us they wanted during Keep Metro Public’s two year Campaign across Tyne and Wear.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .