Memories of Metro tunnelling work

November 2024
A retired construction worker has spoken of his pride at helping to build Metro’s iconic network of tunnels, fifty years on from the project’s start date.
Ralph Maughan, 86, of Seghill in Northumberland, was heavily involved in the Metro tunnelling work for six years in the 1970s as a site manager.
The work, deep beneath the centre of Newcastle, was an enormous feat of engineering and the centrepiece of Metro’s construction phase.
Ralph told of his at delivering the tunnelling project, which was critical to the success of the Tyne and Wear Metro. He headed up a vast and challenging programme of works between 1974 and 1979. Without it there would never have been a Metro system.