Also, have you travelled on the Metro outside of the city centre? Some of the areas it serves are *properly* rough, way rougher than the crappiest bits of London I've seen (which these days never seem to be far from more genteel areas)
Most of the *properly* rough areas in Tyneside aren’t served by Metro. Most of the “rough” areas served by Metro are relatively nice compared to parts of Newcastle’s West End.
As a Geordie I can say there have been areas of London I’ve felt less safe in than anywhere in Newcastle, but they’re few and far between.
The lack of staffing on the Metro network is the biggest issue I think. There’s simply no deterrent to anti-social behaviour, vandalism or even violent crime. In fact some stations present the perfect opportunity for nefarious behaviour (Gateshead Stadium and Pelaw spring immediately to mind).
The comparison with London is interesting. I spend quite a bit of time in the suburbs including what would traditionally be regarded as not particularly great areas, but you’re never far from a “millionaires row” and therefore you get a mix of people and everybody (generally) keeps themselves to themselves. In Newcastle and the surrounding area however there are large uninterrupted expanses of deprivation which are effectively no-go areas unless you’re willing to risk a confrontation (presuming you don’t blend in). It’s a different kind of “rough” I find, although the underlying issues are the same.
Gateshead Stadium is an unusual one. The poor design of the station makes it a hotspot for anti social behaviour, but it’s only the residential area on one side of the line that can actually be considered rough, the houses on the other side of the line are relatively modern and generally house middle class families. Pelaw and everywhere beyond on the route to South Hylton can be classed as rough.
Having been a daily user of Metro for pretty much my entire life I’m not sure I agree with your remarks about “no go” areas on Metro. There are indeed areas of Metro where anti social behaviour and even violent crime is high, but this is almost always targeted at people known to the perpetrators. Generally speaking if you were to head into those areas whilst you may well witness crime you’ll usually be left alone and as such few people consider them to be “no go” areas - that said I’d not want to take photographs in those areas as that’s asking for trouble unless you’re absolutely certain that nobody else is around.
I find that there are two kinds of rough area. Ones where the local youths predominantly have 'better'/far worse things to do than messing about with the railway, but they will utilise it in the course of their activities, and those, often in my experience in former mining areas, where the local youths have literally nothing better to do than mess with the local railway (and staff). Doing so is the highlight of their day. Neither are good, but the former have little impact on the operation on the railway, until somebody gets stabbed onboard...
Onboard stabbings have happened on Metro before. The attitude towards them from both Nexus and the Police is one that reeks of can’t be bothered. There’s a noteable lack of training for staff on how to handle such situations too. One incident I know of is when a man had stabbed a passenger (victim and perpetrator were known to each other), the perpetrator on a few occasions within the space of a couple of minutes got on and off the train, and yet the driver knowing what was going on did sod all. Obviously in such situations it isn’t safe for the driver to leave the cab, but if there was any reasonable training on how to handle such situations the drivers would know to shut the doors the second the knifeman is off the train to keep everyone onboard safe.