Elaine Brunskill, Tyne and Wear Socialist Party
Our campaign ‘local councils – out of service’ to demand local councils get their act together to sort out the region’s ongoing transport crisis, was well received in Gateshead. Even before we’d set up our Socialist Party campaign stall, someone was wanting to sign our petition.
There’s been a groundswell of anger at the closure of the flyover approaching the Tyne Bridge, because of “serious concerns about structural integrity”. 40,000 vehicles a day, which used this flyover, are now being rerouted, causing huge traffic snarl-ups.
This chaos has been added to by an abundance of transportation screw-ups. Keir Starmer’s Labour government is refusing to commit £6 million, which was previously promised from the Department of Transport. This money is needed to repair the Tyne Bridge, which is now just two lanes, adding to traffic mayhem.
The Metro runs underneath the flyover. At one stage, the whole of the Metro service south of the Tyne was suspended, including links to Sunderland, until the flyover was propped up to stabilise it.
The recently elected Labour north east mayor, Kim McGuiness, acknowledged the Metro disruption, saying: “People should not be paying more, when they have had less”. But don’t be fooled by this.
Metro fares are still going up. The increases are only delayed by a few measly months.
Our demands – including full funding for the immediate demolition and replacement of the flyover, and free public transport for all to reduce pressure on congested routes – get a good response.
Our infrastructure across the UK is in terminal decline. Undoubtedly what is happening in Gateshead is being replicated in other towns and cities.
We need to call out Labour’s continuation of Tory austerity, and fight for good transport that is publicly owned and democratically controlled by the working class.
