North East Combined Authority (NECA)

The NECA is the legal body that brings together the seven councils of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland

The North East Combined Authority’s ambition, as set out in its Transport Manifesto is to provide affordable, attractive, reliable, safe, healthy transport choices for businesses, residents and visitors while enhancing the environment.

Working with partners, the NECA provides leadership and a united voice on key strategic transport issues, links strategic transport planning with economic priorities, provides strong representation on transport issues of national significance including rail, air travel, strategic road network and ports as well as providing more effective coordination to enable improvement to the area’s public transport network.

Previously overseen by the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority (ITA), in 2014 the responsibilities and assets of the ITA were transferred to the NECA. From that date the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Area was dissolved. NEXUS manages the functions which it previously delivered within the Tyne and Wear area.

NEXUS is the trading name of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive. NEXUS is an independent organisation. It was created in 1969 by the Tyneside Passenger Transport (Designation) Order 1961 in accordance with the Transport Act 1968 and is responsible for overseeing work and ensuring good governance. The vast majority of these responsibilities have been delegated to a committee of NECA – the Transport North East (Tyne and Wear) Sub-Committee.

Some responsibilities, such as the setting of transport levies and the approval of the regional transport strategy are discharged by the Authority’s principal decision-making body – the NECA Leadership Board.

The NECA has prepared and submitted a bid on behalf of the seven local authorities which aims to obtain in excess of £100 million in funding which will be invested in major improvements to sustainable transport in the area.

The aim of this bid is to help close the area’s productivity gap through better connectivity and more mobility, enabling growth, reducing congestion and improving air quality and public health at the same time.

Metro
The Tyne and Wear Metro serves Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland.

When the Metro opened to the public in August 1980 it was Britain’s first light rapid transit system and was the first railway in the country to be truly wheelchair compatible.

The system was progressively opened in phases through to 1984 when the full 34 miles of the original network became operational with the opening of the line into South Shields. In its first year of full operation there were more than sixty million passenger journeys.

The local rail network was privatised in 1996, however, Tyne and Wear PTE, Nexus as it is now called, kept responsibility for the operation of the Metro. The Metro was extended to Sunderland in April 2002.