Bede is a station on the Tyne and Wear Metro, serving Jarrow in South Tyneside. The station joined the network in March 1984, following the opening of the line between Heworth and South Shields. The station is named after the Venerable Bede – a monk who established the nearby St. Paul's Monastery during the seventh century. Unlike nearby Hebburn and Jarrow, which were converted from former British Rail stations, Bede was purpose-built for Tyne and WearMetro network in the early 1980s. Bede serves an area consisting mainly of industrial estates, with the station located adjacent to the J. Barbour and Sons clothing factory. The station also serves Mariners Park, the home ground of South Shields F.C.. It is one of eight stations on the network that serves a sports ground, with others being Bank Foot and Kingston Park, Callerton Parkway, Gateshead Stadium, Stadium of Light and St. Peter's, and St. James. Bede is situated at the start of the double track section towards South Shields. About west of the station is St. Bede's Junction, the site of the 1915 rail crash in which 18 people were killed, when a South Shields to Newcastle passenger train crashed into a banking engine. In March 2020, the Government announced a £103 million scheme, known as Metro Flow, during the 2020 Budget. From September 2022, the project will see three sections of single line between Pelaw and Bede converted to dual use, with the existing freight-only line electrified, and re-designed to operate using a similar system to the shared line between Pelaw and Sunderland. The station was used by 133,215 passengers in 2017–18, making it the fourth-least-used station on the network, after Pallion, St. Peter's and Bank Foot.
Facilities
Step-free access is available at all stations across the Tyne and Wear Metro network, with ramps providing step-free access to both platforms at Bede. The station is equipped with ticket machines, waiting shelter, seating, next train information displays, timetable posters, and an emergency help point on both platforms. Ticket machines are able to accept payment with credit and debit card, notes and coins. The station is also fitted with smartcard validators, which feature at all stations across the network. There is no dedicated car parking available at the station. There is the provision for cycle parking, with 2 cycle pods available for use.
Service and frequency
Bede is served by the, which operates between South Shields and St. James with an end-to-end journey time of 83 minutes. Services from platform 1 operate towards South Shields, with the first train departing at 05:30. Services from platform 2 operate towards St. James via Whitley Bay, with the first train departing at 05:51. Trains run frequently across the network, at intervals of up to every 12 minutes, and every 15 minutes, with the last trains departing at around midnight. Journey times from Bede are:
