Eighteen-year-olds and under will be the only group that won’t see the cost of their Metro tickets go up in 2020, operator Nexus has revealed.

The 18 and Under Metro season ticket, offering a 60% discount, will remain available to all young people aged 16 to 18, alongside a new offer that will allow up to three children aged 11 and under to travel for free on Metro at weekends when accompanied by a fare paying adult, and the freezing of all fares affecting 18s and under.

For everyone else, however, prices are set to go up on 2 January 2020:

• One zone, two zone and all zone single and day tickets are set to rise by 10p each
• One zone, two zone and all zone weekly tickets are set to rise by 30p, 50p and 70p respectively
• One zone, two zone and all zone monthly tickets are set to rise by £1.20, £1.70 and £2.30 respectively
• One zone, two zone and all zone annual season tickets are set to rise by £13, £18.10 and £20 respectively.

Nexus admits that the average passenger fare will rise by 1.9% in 2020.

The price rises come in spite of research conducted by Nexus, that found cost and value for money to be the most important issues to passengers, with 37% of those surveyed saying the Metro provides “poor” or “very poor” value for money.

The news also follows a spate of issues for the Metro, as “low rail adhesion” and “anti-social behaviour” has seen trains removed from service, whilst maintenance work on the escalators at Haymarket has forced passengers to exit at Jesmond and Monument stations.

Unlike other news stories published by Nexus, there is no sign of the price rises on their Facebook page, as passengers voiced their displeasure on other posts on the page, and towards the @My_Metro twitter account.

Nexus said the fares are rising to meet “running costs”. Tobyn Hughes, managing director of Nexus. said: “Metro is a public service that doesn’t make a profit and get a government subsidy to keep it running, so fare revenue is vital.”

Hughes said Metro’s “overall package of fares for 2020 delivers good value for our passengers,” and that “Metro will continue to have some of the cheapest fares in the country.”

The fare changes were agreed to by councillors on the Joint Transport Committee (Tyne and Wear Sub-committee) on Thursday 21 November.

The price rises will be enacted alongside Nexus’ plans for a £362m redevelopment of the rail network.