Metro services to be cut amid 'driver shortage'

Metro services in Tyne and Wear are set to be cut back over the winter due to driver shortages, bosses say.

Transport chiefs expect staff numbers to be up to 13% below the levels needed to run a full timetable, even before factoring in staff sickness.

Many employees have been lured by rivals offering higher salaries, while a driver training programme in May was cancelled because of coronavirus.

A reduced schedule is set to be announced next month.

Metro's driver and crew workforce is predicted to be 10% below what is needed in December and 13% below in January.

Nexus, which operates the rail network, hopes the shortage will have been addressed by March following a six-month training programme for 30 recruits, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Metro's operations director Chris Carson said: "We need to train more drivers and we have been unable to do that for six months.

"This has had a knock-on effect for our customers, with trains sometimes being cancelled as a result, even though we do all we can to avoid this.

"When these latest driver schools are completed by next spring we will be back to where we need to be in terms of train crew numbers."

The network has received three government bailouts totalling almost £25m following a slump in passenger numbers amid the coronavirus outbreak.