The Metro
Mein goot friends...
I remember back in those days of long ago in 1980 the tyneside metro opened...and did it go to Kenton Bar?...NO!
and did the residents of Kenton Bar have to pay for it?...YES!
I remember being most aggrieved at this fact, and more, having to trail down to bloody Kenton Bankfoot(initially the metro terminated there-now it has been extended to Newcastle Airport), Kingston Park or North Fawdon to get on it..nevertheless for some reason which I cannot explain we did use it for a while, rather than the mental 10(See post '8,9 and the mental 10'...)
Ruffians and bounders from down the bottom and Kenton used to behave most dreadfully on the journey home,for example using the standing hanging hand rails to turn summersaults betwixt them in the aisle...
I meinself, being a sensible cub scout type, hoping to get his trainspotting badge, was to busy trainspotting in the very front seats, writing down the numbers of passing metros and the time of their passing in mein trainspotter book to become embroilled in this tomfoolery...do you believe me?...
I remember it opening and wandering down to check it out. I didn't live in Newcastle any more, but used to come up to visit mi' Mam & Dad a few times a year.
ReplyDeleteI hated the angry buzzing noise that the door sounder made just before the doors shut. Someone told me that the Montreal Metro chimed the first three notes of "Fanfare for the common man" (the theme of the 1976 olympics) and it struck me that the Tyne & Wear PTE were lacking in both imagination & style.
Yes the metro was most aesthetically unpleasing in comparison to the wonderful Tube trains in London...its only redeaming feature was the Madness 'M' on the sign like above,as I liked the band Madness...
ReplyDeleteI am very happy that the metro never came to Kenton Bar. Firstly it would have cost a fortune - the Metro lines themselves are based on the existing route for the mineral lines and commercial rail lines service that part of Newcastle. Extending these to Kenton bar would have cost millions. Secondly the bloody noise. Thirdly the influx of rough types.
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