Lines re-open:
Wed 10th Mar, 9:00am (UK)

Newcastle - Guide

Arriving

Newcastle International Airport is located about 9.5 km northwest of the city centre, near the town of Ponteland. The fastest growing regional airport in the UK, it handles over 5 million passengers per year and offers flights to over 90 worldwide destinations (including Dubai.)

Most travellers find that the Tyne and Wear Metro is the quickest and easiest way of getting into the city centre. The journey to Monument station takes about 20 minutes and costs £2.80. Bus services operated by Stagecoach also run between the airport and the city centre. Taxis are readily available outside the main terminal building. It costs about £15 to get to the city centre.

Created by architect John Dobson and opened in 1850 by Queen Victoria, Newcastle’s railway station was the first covered train station in the world and its neoclassical design proved extremely influential. It is a principal stop on the East Coast Main Line and Cross Country Route

National Express East Coast frequently connects Newcastle with London Kings Cross (journey time about 3 hours), as well as Edinburgh and principle destinations in between (including York, Doncaster and Peterborough).

Cross Country Trains runs services every 30 minutes from Newcastle to Birmingham via Leeds/Doncaster, Sheffield and the East Midlands. Some services extend through Bristol to South Wales or South West England. Cross Country Trains also run north to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Transpennine Express runs direct services from Newcastle to Leeds, Manchester and Manchester Airport. The local rail network is operated by Northern Rail, with relatively frequent services to destinations such as Carlisle, Middlesbrough, Hexham and Morpeth.

Newcastle Coach Station is located at the southern end of St James' Boulevard, near to the ‘Centre for Life’ and just a short walk from the centre of town. National Express is the main intercity operator, offering regular services to several UK towns and cities. Most National Express tickets to Newcastle from other parts of the UK include free travel on the Metro system.

The international ferry terminal at North Shields offers services to destinations including Amsterdam, Stavanger, Haugesund and Bergen. From summer 2007, Thomson cruise lines includes Newcastle as a port of call on its Norwegian and Fjords cruise.

Newcastle upon Tyne is well signposted from the North, South and West. The city lies at the joining of the A1 (the main East Coast road running from London to Edinburgh) and the A69 (a major east-west route to Carlisle and the M6). The A1 bypasses the city to the west. There are a number of 'park-and-ride' points around the city to avoid the hassle of parking in the centre.

Getting Around

Opened in five phases between 1980 and 1984, the Tyne and Wear Metro was Britain's first urban light rail transit system: a network of suburban and underground railways covering a good deal of the immediate area, that carries over 37 million passengers a year. Day tickets cost anything up to £4, depending on the time of day and destination. But if you're staying within a single zone, a one-zone return ticket (£1.70) offers great value, as it allows unlimited Metro travel within that zone all day.