Tyne and Wear Metro trains shut down prematurely across the entire network on Saturday night, amid an ongoing dispute with staff.
Metros began to run off at around 4pm, with the last services ending between 5pm and 6pm.
The transport network will not restart until 8am on Sunday (20 February), bringing massive inconveniences for travellers across the North East this weekend.
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Tickets were however accepted on local buses across the region, for the duration of the service's suspension.
Metro operator Nexus apologised for the disruption in advance - which is the result of a crisis between employees in the system’s control centre.
It is reported that staff on the Metro's power supply desk - where a mere 10 people are employed - declined to work overtime or forfeit precious days off to cover a staff shortage.
Nexus also in-turn claimed that the staff were refusing to train up other colleagues to perform their essential tasks in their absence.
John Alexander, Metro Operations Director, apologised in advance for the shut down, saying: “We are forced to suspend the Metro service across the system on Saturday evening and early Sunday morning due to an industrial relations matter affecting our Control Centre.
"I am sorry for the inconvenience this will cause for many people.
“A small number of Metro employees in our control centre are refusing to work overtime or train colleagues to perform their roles.
"We have contingencies in place to protect our customers when this happens, but on this occasion we’ve exhausted all options, so we do not have staff available to operate Metro safely during one full shift from Saturday evening into Sunday morning.
“We are working hard with our trade unions in productive talks to resolve the outstanding issues there are within the control centre teams."
A representative of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said that the workers could not be compelled to work outside their contracted hours, and that a lack of contingency cover in the control room was a problem that had been “ongoing for many, many years and has never been sufficiently dealt with”.
He added: “The last thing I want is the Metro to be shut down and we will work tirelessly with the organisation to find a resolution, even though there is no trade dispute.
“We had very productive discussions but they have not been able to deliver the outcome that the company wants.
“The staff are not incentivised by the proposals or counter offers, they just don’t want to have to work on their rest days and you cannot force them to do that.
“There is no requirement in their contract to do that, they are just exercising their right to say that they want to spend their time off with their families.”
Delays in normally busy areas were expected as Sunderland AFC's home fixture with MK Dons came to a close around 5pm - with expectations coming to fruition a little after 5.30pm.
There were reports of congestion on A1290 Queens Road/Keir Hardie Way (Westbound) from Southwick Road and Stadium Way (Stadium of Light) to B1539 Queen Alexandra Bridge. The time difference between both destinations via vehicle is around 12 minutes.
Additionally, there was also slow traffic between A1018 Newcastle Road from Crozier Street (Stadium of Light Metro) to the A184 Newcastle/Shields Road of around 7 minutes.
Congestion on both routes was cleared half an hour later.
The unusual occurrence on the services part also left a few transport link users upset, some of whom taking to social media to voice their opinions.
One Twitter user wrote: "Got Metro at Fawdon 16:40, two stops later it terminates and my choices are wait 30 mins for the last train before they all stop and then be stuck in town, or go home.
"Great value for my £4.40 A+B daysaver.
"Sorry but this service is terrible."
Finally, Tyne and Wear Metro took to social media at 6.30pm to confirm that all trains had returned to the network's depot, and that no trains would be running system-wide until 8.15am tomorrow.
