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Would you drive around in a 30-year-old car? You'd notice the difference compared to modern cars, which are quieter, more comfortable with air conditioning etc, and use less fuel. Metro has been around almost 30 years and some of the machinery we rely on has never been replaced - like the trains and the escalators at busy stations. Some of the tunnels, bridges and tracks are much older than that - some go back 150 years to when Robert Stephenson was alive building Britain's first railways. All this takes a lot of looking after, if we are to keep the trains running, day after day, to carry almost 40 million passengers a year. As Metro gets older the cost of keeping it running smoothly will keep going up - did you know we can't buy the parts we need to fix those escalators, or the oldest heaters on our trains, because no-one makes them anymore. And passengers will notice the difference too, as stations start to look rundown and dirty, or if bits of Metro keep breaking down. We want everyone who uses Metro to have the best possible journey - to know the trains run on time and are comfortable and convenient to use. We want to rebuild our stations to make them safe, well-lit places to catch a train, with modern information. All this takes money, which is why we've asked the Government to give us the money for a £600 million Metro Re-invigoration project. If we get the money we'll spend it right across Metro. We'll spend it modernising stations and trains, replacing worn-out signals, wires, radio systems and a thousand other things that mean you can rely on Metro now and for decades into the future. We're asking everyone in Tyne and Wear to support Metro Re-invigoration, so we can show the Government how much Metro means to local people. You can help us by going to metroreinvigoration@nexus.org.uk and leaving your name and your schools address, and a comment if you want on why Metro matters to you.
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