Readers have shared their city centre traffic woes after a video showed a 300m drive taking 15 minutes.
The footage, posted to YouTube by Pukkadriver, showed a journey from the short stay car park to Westmorland Road.
Work around Newcastle Central Station, including a bus lane, widened pavements, a new layout on the road outside the station and the £24.5m project to improve the Central Gateway, has left drivers battling blocked roads.
And the story prompted many of you to weigh in with your own experiences of traffic misery in Newcastle.
Writing on our Facebook page, Andrew Harrison said: “Operation get cars out of the city centre is in full swing now. Takes an hour and a half for me to get from work in Benwell to home in Wallsend.”
Emma Watkin commented: “Absolutely disgusting it’s taken me over an hour to drive to town today it used to just take 20 minutes.”
ALSO READ: Watch a 300m drive in Newcastle city centre take 15 minutes due to roadworks
Claire Wilson posted: “I’ve sat in that traffic when I’ve been to collect kids from Central Station when my mam brings them back from hers.
“It’s taken me at least 30 minutes to get through the traffic approaching Central Station up and round and across Neville Street to park in the short stay rather being able to just turn left into it.”
Deborah Gardner said: “Getting from the city centre to Gosforth with three lots of road works takes 50 minutes. Not good when you have two jobs.”
David Thompson said the works had “ruined it for the taxi trade.”
He commented: “Every passenger thinks we are robbing them by having to take a detour.”
Some of you said the same drive had taken longer than 15 minutes.
Annie Fordlass commented: “Only 15 minutes?! Last time I drove through that way it was a sunny afternoon and I was starting to wonder if it was easy to locate the light switch on my new car in case it was night time before I reached second gear!”
But David Dodgson posted: “City centres were never designed to handle large numbers of cars. Save petrol and stress - take a bus.”
The council is exploring creating an entrance to the south of Central Station in Phase 2 of its Central Gateway project. A preferred scheme has yet to be established.
A Newcastle City Council spokesman said: “The work at Central Station is of the utmost importance to us and our partners, and we continue to monitor traffic to ensure the project continues to deliver benefits for the city.”
