Newcastle Central Metro and Newcastle Aiport

[142094]

This has been puzzling me, and I can't find much info on it. Looking at a ticket for Newcastle, from say York, you can have either one to Newcastle (NCL), Newcastle Central Metro (NCZ) or Newcastle Airport (APN), aside from the fact that normal rail tickets are valid between Sunderland and Newcastle as well.

The question is, what is the difference between NCZ and APN? Is it a case that an APN ticket is valid only between NCL and APN, and that a NCZ is a ticket for anywhere else on the Metro? There is no info on nationalrail.co.uk that I can find, nothing on Nexus that I can find either, and Advantix doesn't show tickets between York and NCZ or APN.

 

[DavidBusDriver]

Hi there,

I make no claim of accuracy, but I think the 3 types of ticket are :

Newcastle Central is fairly obvious,

Newcastle Metro I believe offers T&W Metro travel (Day Ticket?) included in the ticket,

and the Newcastle Airport includes one T&W Metro journey to the Airport in the price.

 

[142094]

Hi David,

That sounds quite possible, but as it doesn't tell you anywhere I wouldn't like to take the chance of getting home and being told I can't use the ticket on the Metro. You'd think they'd publicise it a bit better, after all when you get a ticket to London you have the option of buying a travelcard from the Tube as well.

I'm off up on Thursday so will ask at the station. No doubt I'll get a funny look for asking for one, unless I get someone at the counter who is on the ball.

 

[cuccir]

I think the various tickets, based on what I've used, are:

* Newcastle - straight forward

* Tyne and Wear Metro - Allows you to travel to and from any metro stop on the T&W network. If you're just travelling through one zone on the metro, it's not worth it. In practice they can probably be used as day passes (they don't get stamped etc) though you could perhaps get in trouble being checked getting off a southbound train at Monument, for example.

* Newcastle Airport - yeah, only valid on trains from the station to the airport

* Newcastle Central Metro - not sure, never used it. It might be that it is valid to all stops in the Newcastle Central Metro Zone, but I've not checked this.

If you've got time, you might find it easiest playing around with a fast ticket machine and seeing what it offers at what prices!

 

[clagmonster]

My interpretation is:
York-Newcastle: normal BR only fare
York-Newcastle Airport: As York-Newcastle but with an inclusive Metro journey Newcastle Central-Newcastle Airport. There are also similar tickets to most other Metro stations, if not all of them, but these are in the form Jesmond (Metro). These do not appear in Avantix, but do in the WebTis based journey planners.
York-Newcastle Metro City centre: As York-Newcastle but with an inclusive Metro journey in the Newcastle city centre Metro fare zone. I suppose this ticket could be interpreted as an inclusive rover, like a Travelcard is, but I see no reason for this to be true.

The Newcastle (Metro) destination seems to be used by the journey planners when planning journeys to/from Sunderland in order to differentiate between Newcastle Central BR and Newcastle Central Metro station. I don't think any fares are issued to/from Newcastle (Metro).

 

[janb]

OK Newcastle Airport,

Interchange station: Newcastle, Sunderland or Heworth

Newcastle Airport can be reached by Tyne & Wear Metro through National Rail interchanges at Newcastle, Heworth and Sunderland stations.

Fares
Some through fares to Newcastle Airport may be shown in your TIS or the Fares Finder. Other through tickets via Newcastle may be issued by adding the add-on amounts to fares to Newcastle.

Add-on amounts

£2.10 - Single (FOS, FDS, SOS, SDS)

£4.20 - Return (FOR, FDR, SDR, SSR, SVR, SOR)

£3.30 - Return (CDR only)

£13.00 - 7 Day Seasons

Fares are also available in the reverse direction

Ticketing
Destination name & NLC: Newcastle Airport H642

Newcastle Central Metro (NCZ) doesn't have any fares I can find in STAR.


The Manual gives the following instruction for fares to places other than Newcastle Airport,

For tickets to stations in the Tyne and Wear Metro Inner Zone, compile the fare by adding the rail fare to Newcastle to the Metro fare shown below;

Single (SDS, SOS, FOS, FDS) - £1·10.
Return (SDR, SSR, SVR, SOR, FDR, FOR) - £2.20
Return (CDR only) - £1·70
7 Day Season - £7.00

For tickets to stations in the Tyne and Wear Metro All Zone Metro System, compile the fare by adding the rail fare to Newcastle to the Metro fare shown below;


Single (SDS, SOS, FOS, FDS) - £2·10
Return (SDR, SSR, SVR, SOR, FDR, FOR) - £4.20
Return (CDR only) - £3.30
7 Day Season - £13.00

I notice from playing in STAR that there is (G025) "TYNE & W DAY RVR", and (H665) "TYNE&WEAR METRO", both give fares from York as a test case, but I have read nothing to suggest these are valid fares.

I was in Newcastle for the Bank Holiday Weekend and I agree they could do a lot better making the whole system understood.

 

[142094]

I've asked Nexus about this, but still waiting a reply. Hopefully someone there knows.

 

[clagmonster]

I assume the TYNE & W DAY RVR corresponds to the tickets in this leaflet:
http://www.networkonetickets.co.uk/media/pdfs/NO-Day-Rover-6pp.pdf
It seems to be available from Newcastle itself, and as a cheap day return from stations with cheap day returns to Newcastle where East Coast set the fare. Strangely, from Newcastle the fare is £6.10 child, £3.05 whereas the leaflet as them slightly higher. What are the fares showing as in NFM06?

Fares to TYNE&WEAR METRO seem to appear from stations outside of Tyne & Wear, where East Coast, TPE or Northern, but not Cross Country set the fare. There are also East Coast advance fares. It seems to be priced slightly higher than the Newcastle fare, but less than the day rover fare, so I suspect it is an inclusive Metro Daysaver ticket.

 

[142094]

Have received a reply from Nexus:

Huw Lewis of Nexus writes: The tickets you describe cover

1) onward travel to any of the following Metro stations: Jesmond, Haymarket, Monument, Central, Gateshead, Gateshead Stadium, St James and Manors from any national rail station in the UK via Central.
2) onward travel to Newcastle Airport from any national rail station in the UK via Central.

Train Operating Companies should also be able to sell you add-ons valid to any Metro station, when you buy your main ticket. There are also specific add-ons covering onward travel from Sunderland station to any station up to South Hylton, and onward travel to stations on the Sunderland line that were national rail stops before 2002 - Brockley Whins, East Boldon and Seaburn.

I see Brockley Whins, East Boldon and Seaburn are on Advantix. Can anyone come up with some prices from say York?

Cheers.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Should clarify 1) is NCZ and 2) is APN.

 

[First class]

York - Seaburn/East Boldon/Brockley Whins £23.60 (CDR after 0915)

 

[142094]

Thanks for that. Will have a try the next time I'm up that way. Guessing the destination on the ticket will be the same, and not TW Metro or something along those lines?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I've been on the East Coast website and it sure does have all the Metro stations listed on it (that I have checked anyway). So I'm guessing that the price is just the normal but + £2.10 for a single Metro journey.

If I was going to Tynemouth for example, would it say Tynemouth or just TW Metro or something similar?

 

[cuccir]

From Durham the ticket says 'Tyne and Wear Metro' (well, T&W Metro) whenever I have bought them.

 

[142094]

Same, but wonder how they can tell the difference between NCZ, APN and all the others. Will try tomorrow when I'm at the station.