Northumberland Park Metro station

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Northumberland Park
Northumberland Park Metro station
Northumberland Park Metro station under construction in 2005.
Location
Place Backworth
Local authority North Tyneside
Fare zone information
Network Zone 18
Metro Zone B
History
Opened 2005-12-11
Tyne and Wear Metro
List of Tyne and Wear Metro stations

Northumberland Park Metro station is a station on the Tyne and Wear Metro Yellow Line, in North Tyneside near Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It serves a new housing development known as Northumberland Park. It is situated between Palmersville and Shiremoor.

The Metro station began operating on 11 December 2005 and was officially opened on 13 December 2005 by Prof Tony Ridley, the first Director General of Nexus. The station is purpose built for Metro and is the first new station to be built since the Sunderland extension in 2002. It is located on the approximate site of the Backworth railway station, which closed in 1979 and was demolished prior to the construction of the Metro. Backworth was the only station on the North Tyneside Loop not included in the system, apart from Heaton station (which was on a part of the alignment not used in the Metro).

The station is also served by bus route 19 which links Northumberland Park with the Silverlink Business Park, Royal Quays and the Shields Ferry.

In October 2007, a large hole under the track appeared, which was spotted by a Metro driver. All trains from Shiremoor station and Benton station were halted. This hole was first determined to be a collapse of the underground mines below and caused widespread media coverage, causing fret among the public believing the new station was subsiding (which could effect the newly built housing estate and Sainsbury's supermarket). This was all downplayed and the hole was fixed, with normal service resuming 3 weeks later.

[edit] External links

Preceding station   Tyne and Wear Metro   Following station
toward St James via the Coast
Yellow line