By TPE to Tynemouth
A Tyneside trip
© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2018
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
14 May 2018
My friend had spotted a “Club 55” offer
from TransPennine Express. “It’s only on
for a couple of weeks, but we ought to
take advantage…” At £21 for
destinations in the north of England -
less 20% for our railcards - it was too
good to miss. So we’re up at the crack of dawn, on this day of
cloudless blue skies, to join Arriva’s 8.15am from Nantwich.
We’ll walk through the centre of Manchester to catch the 9.51
from Victoria (9.12 from Liverpool Lime Street).
The class 185 units are reasonably quiet and comfortable for
the 150-mile trip (though soon to be superceded by hauled/
propelled stock), taking just under two and a half hours.
We’re not going to hang around Newcastle Central though -
we’re off on the Metro, via Longbenton and
Monkseaton to Whitley Bay (still an attractive
station) and Tynemouth (magnificent!). The
fish and chips on the wall overlooking the
North Sea were pretty good too.
We’d had ideas of crossing the Tyne on the
Shields ferry, but time was beginning to get
the better of us. After a walk beside the river
to North Shields, we were back on the
Metro, arriving at Monument with time
to take a look at Grey Street, before
returning to Central in nice time for the
16.06 to Manchester (and Liverpool). We
needn’t have worried - a late-running
southbound departure delayed us by ten minutes, so that we
crossed the King Edward bridge beside a long
train of new-looking biomass wagons. We’d
made up the delay by the time we were back
in Manchester - there’s even time for a
refreshment stop on our way back to
Piccadilly…
More photos of our trip (the sea, Grey St etc)
at http://geoffspages.blog/2018/05/16/no-
fog-on-the-tyne/
