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TYNE and Wear County Council may have to consider street running Metro cars after the Government's refusal to sanction future extensions to the £280m Tyneside Metro.
Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine has published amendments to the Tyne and Wear Structure Plan which effectively veto any future Metro lines.
The county authority had hoped to continue work on the system as soon as present work was completed, and had even bought a number of properties along the proposed routes.
The council still hopes to change Mr Heseltine's mind, but chairman of Tyne Wear planning and transportation committee Jim Cousins said that if these efforts failed: "We would then have to ask the Passenger Transport Executive to explore the possibility of a second-generation Metrocar design which would be capable of street running to enable the Metro to be introduced into existing streets."