Metro misery continues as repair work is carried out on Sunderland line

Work is under way to repair cable damage which has severely affected rail and Metro services in Sunderland and South Tyneside.

Network Rail teams are working to repair a damaged power cable in Seaburn, which feeds high voltage power to the overhead lines.

The problem caused serious disruption yesterday, with services between South Hylton and East Boldon suspended for lengthy periods.

And delays have continued into today, Wednesday, October 25, with Tyne and Wear Metro running a reduced service between Pelaw and South Hylton until the damage is fixed.

Network Rail teams are planning to carry out a fix as soon as possible. The repair will be carried out overnight so that passenger services are not affected during the work.

Passengers travelling in the area are being encouraged to check their journey before they travel via National Rail Enquiries, their train operator, or the Tyne and Wear Metro website.

Paul Rutter, Route Director for Network Rail’s East Coast route, apologised for the problems: "We’re sorry for the disruption that is being caused to passengers’ journeys in the Seaburn area," he said.

"Our teams are working hard to resolve the issue and have already implemented a temporary fix which allows some Tyne and Wear Metro services to run.

“In the meantime, we’re asking passengers to check before they travel and want to thank them for their patience and understanding while work is carried out.”

Kevin Storey, Tyne and Wear Metro Operations Director, said it had been possible to partially restore operations along the line but services were still severely restricted.

"Our apologies to customers who are seeing their Metro journeys disrupted on the Sunderland line," he said.

"Network Rail, who own and maintain the line, have advised us that they have to carry out urgent repairs to power supply cables."

He urged commuters to allow extra travel time and be patient until the work was complete: "We can only run two trains per hour on the Sunderland line, instead of the usual five trains per hour.

"Customers will need to plan ahead, allow plenty of extra time to make journeys, and be prepared for services to be a lot busier.”