High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Tyne and Wear Metro, also known as the Metro, is a light rail system in North East England, serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland. It opened in 1980 and in 2007–2008 provided 40 million public journeys on its network of nearly 78 kilometres (48 mi). It is operated by DB Regio Tyne and Wear Ltd, the British rail subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, on behalf of Nexus.