The Tyne and Wear Metro is the oldest of the UK new generation' light rapid transport systems which was opened in stages from 1980 to 1984. The system is now beginning to show its age and this paper will describe the development of Project Orpheus' a visionary plan deliver best value for money to tackle traffic congestion and re-invigorate the Metro over the next 20 years. It is intended that Orpheus is delivered in a two phase approach with the first phase focusing on Metro reinvigoration and significant bus based enhancements with the second phase focusing on completing the Metro reinvigoration programme (including new Metro trains) and introducing trams on some of the key traffic corridors in Tyne and Wear. The paper will first review benchmarking of the existing Metro system against other LRT systems across the world to assess system performance and identify opportunities for improvements. The paper then summarizes research into worldwide best practice initiatives to promote LRT ridership. Finally the paper will describe the development of an Outline Business Case (OBC) for Metro reinvigoration to deliver best value for money drawing on the benchmarking research and interviews and focus groups with non users of the Metro which identified the reasons why people do not use the existing system. The main components of the OBC which are passenger focused (e.g. station improvements) with particular emphasis on initiatives to improve system integration and passenger safety and security are described. For the covering abstract please see ITRD E135207.
Abstract