The Tyne and Wear Metro - which opened in 1980 and serves Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland - has had 500 new LED lights installed across its network in a bid to bring its operational costs and emissions down.
Big Energy - a firm based in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham - carried out the rollout comprising the Metro's repair and maintenance depot in Gosforth, engine sheds, pits and sidings, the Northern Echo reported.
It is expected that the new systems will reduce the amount of energy used from 500 watts per unit to 120, which in turn will cut the costs of running these lights by about 60 per cent.
David Cliff, director of the company which carried out the work, highlighted the importance of companies - both public and private - investing in more efficient solutions. "In these challenging and competitive times, energy costs are significant for many companies and LED lighting is a great way to massively reduce that energy consumption," he said.
This follows news just last month that the Paris Metro had launched a very similar project - albeit more extensive - when it was announced that £9.6 million worth of contracts covering one million sq m and 250,000 LED light installations was to transform 302 Metro stations and 66 RER ones.
RATP, the company which runs the entire Parisian public transport network, had set a target to cut its energy usage and emissions by 15 per cent from 2004 levels by 2020. With the stations comprising approximately 12 per cent of all of the public transport system's consumption, it is hoped the lights will make a huge difference to operational costs in the French capital.
Coming above ground and back across the Channel, several town and city councils in England are also starting to pay attention to what could be dubbed the 'LED revolution', which is seeing increasing numbers of streetlights replaced by ecological LED solutions, as the government drives initiatives to make the country more green.
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