South Shields MP set for Government talks as commuters face a morning of fresh Metro misery

Commuters were hit by more Metro delays this morning.

A points failure at Monkseaton at 7.28am this morning led to train services being suspended until 7.45am on the Tynemouth to Shiremoor line - causing a knock-on effect of delays on the route from St James to South Shields.

The fifteen minute delay in train services to South Shields lasted for nearly three hours, until the problem was finally ironed out at about 10.40am.

It was the latest in a series of track hold-ups faced by commuters.

Metro owners Nexus has apologised for the track disruption.

South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck has led calls for the Tyne and Wear Metro to be overhauled, saying the service is “totally unacceptable”.

She has received floods of complaints from fed-up travellers plagued by delays over recent months.

Mrs Lewell-Buck vowed to hold crunch Westminster talks over the future of the service - and has now agreed a meeting with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Andrew Jones MP, later this month.

A Metro spokesman said: “We apologise to customers who were disrupted this morning. This was a result of a points failure. The repairs were carried out swiftly, within 15 minutes, but the service hold up had an impact on trains on the South Shields line.”