Newcastle – SMLP:

Metro Saves Money on Petrol – Meh!

The new advertising campaign from Nexus to promote greater use of the Tyne and Wear Metro system

I’m all for greater use of public transport [insert generic comment about environment]; for my morning commute I cycle to work; [insert comment about own self worth directed to making me sound environmentally friendly].

I have an issue with this advert. Anything that involves not using petrol saves money on petrol.

I save £££’s on petrol for my own car every time I get a taxi.
I switch off the engine every time I’ve finish using the car! It saves me a fortune in petrol

My issue is it make out like it would be cheaper to get the Metro over paying for petrol to drive to your destination. The advert is located in Gateshead so my presumption is that the advertising campaign is focused on people living outside of Newcastle City Centre, something I feel is confirm by one of their online images. Petrol in not cheap, I get that. People want to save money… great!

My beef; it is in fact cheaper to drive and park in Newcastle City Centre than it is the get the Metro!

A off peak return for an adult from Gateshead to Newcastle is £3.10 (£3.70 at peak times). Cost of driving that same distance for a car running on about 40MPG basised on May 2011 petrol prices…. 7p

Take an average; two adults taking a 4 hour shopping trip into Newcastle.

Metro £6.20

Drive + Parking £5.07

When you drive you can stick as many people in the car as you like and the cost stays the same or an extra £3.10 per adult when you get the Metro.

NEXUS – Sort it out.

Maybe if you hadn’t spent all that money on the advertising campaigns you could reduce your ticket prices and actually give more people a reason to use the Metro more often. Try it. One week; £1 per person; per journey (including major connecting bus routes). It’s almost like you think we live in an area where the road system is completely clogged up and that a integrated transport system is peoples only option to minimize commuting havoc. Tyne and Wear is not London. We have space to park our cars in Newcastle city centre and we are able to get there without it taking hours navigating traffic hell.

If Nexus reduced the price to use the Tyne and Wear Metro would you (when possible) use it? Discuss.

The time is almost upon us in Newcastle

Back in September 2009 Sam ( @purplelime )over at Fruitbytes.co.uk gave the people of Newcastle the heads up about the retail store us northern geeks were waiting for. Our very own Apple Store.

With less than six days till opening I took a quick look back at the original floor plans of Eldon Square’s new south wing to remind me what I was getting excited about. I’m now a little worried about what we may get from our new Apple Store.

I’m not going to write anything off till I get into the place myself; but if you look at the size of the Apple Store unit and compare it to the Top Shop unit opposite it. Top Shop normally have some good size stores so it would suggest that the new Apple Store in comparison will be of a good size. If however you picture the size of most of the stores in Eldon Square (if you have been there and are able to do that) you will be aware that they aren’t very big.

Take a look at this digital walk through of the new wing of Eldon Square.

The size of the units shown don’t seem to be that big. What if our new Apple store is just a baby version of what you would expect from an Apple store? I’m not saying that I expect a London or New York sized store; but I do want a store that will do Newcastle justice.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

What do you think the Apple Store will bring to Newcastle?

Are you planning on visiting on opening day?

Do you care?

Beverage 365 – 22/02/09

Had myself a quick solo photo walk into Newcastle early this morning and ended up at the millennium bridge again. I have to say I love the Newcastle/Gateshead Quayside but sometimes I just end up down there because I just can’t think of anywhere else to go. I pointed this out on Twitter when @brianbge reminded me “@SMLP Don’t take it for granted. We’re so lucky it’s on our doorstep”. He’s right I should make more use of such a picturesque location.

After a bit of a chain wag with a fellow photographer about Microglobe for great prices on lenses it was off to collect some stuff from storage in town.

Em’s back to work tomorrow and my last day off tomorrow; so it’s chill out tonight then on with the house hunt tomorrow and maybe some more photo action.

Other Photo from today: