Calls for Metro system expansion

Mr Milburn wants the Tyne and Wear Metro system extended

An MP is calling for the Metro network to be expanded to cover much of the north-east of England.

At the moment, the train system just operates across Tyne and Wear.

But Darlington MP and former Health Secretary Alan Milburn wants the network to be extended into County Durham and Teesside.

He believes it would be an important boost for the region and that a project should be put together setting out how it could cover the region.

The light railway network is 25 years old. A nine-mile extension with 12 new stations, from South Tyneside to Sunderland, opened in 2002.

Mr Milburn said: "If we believe in the region that mass transit systems, this sort of public transport can really make a difference, and I believe it can, then what we have got to do is be ambitious enough to put together a big project to extend the Metro well beyond Tyne and Wear so that we have a mass transit system for the whole of the region."