My dad was made redundant in 1969 and for a while it looked as though we wouldn’t get a holiday that year, then, some friends of my parents offered accomodation at their house in Felling, an area of Gateshed, our friends showed us the route through the centre of Gateshead and Newcastle and how to get to the seaside resorts of Tynemouth, Cullercotes and Whitley Bay, the city streets were almost deserted on Sunday morning and our friend was quite an accomplished driver in his Ford Cortina. We made the same journey on Monday morning and both Gateshead and Newcastle were crammed solid with traffic, my dad wasn’t the worlds best driver, and mum wasn’t hugely gifted as navigator, it was perhaps one of the most frightening journey of my young life.
We saw signs for the Tyne tunnel on our return journey and discovered an alternative route, which meant that when we went back to Felling for future holidays, we had to endure the horrors of driving through the cities no more. Travelling through Gateshead and Newcastle is not the same today as it was a staggering fifty years ago with most of the through traffic now bypassing through the tunnel and along the western bypass, a second tunnel had now been opened to carry all the southboud traffic and even though the number of vehicles on the road has increased significantly the tunnel has played an important role in crossing the river Tyne.
Back in the olden days all the kiosks were manned and progress was slow, with the march of technology we have now advanced to a system where the driver throws coins into a bucket contraption and once the correct fee has been registered, the red light turns to green and the barrier lifts before you. This modern system has reduced queues more than ever. Travelling to Holy Island in June we crossed the tyne via the tunnel and we were very complimentary because the crossing was better than we have ever experienced, improved junctions to the south of the tunnel and about a mile north of it made for the least pain filled crossing of the Tyne ever.
The return journey wasn’t quite so good, we joined the queue at about 4:30pm and traffic was much heavier, I picked my lane, wound the window down and had the money ready to chuck into the receptical. You can imagine my horror when there was nowhere to put my money, traffic was building up behind me and I suddenly felt under immense pressure, I was looking at a red light, but the barrier was lifted, I had no option but to make a run for it. I felt like a criminal, but there was nobody around to tell and pulling out of the gate was a little bit like the start of the Grand Prix, with about ten lanes of traffic fighting to pole position on the two lanes through the tunnel. I had visions of being hit with a big fine for misdemeanour, but thanks to my family who found me a telephone helpline and the help of a lad called Adam in help centre I was able to settle my debt of £1.90 the following day. It turned out that I had driven through a pre paid lane.
I have always tried to engage with change, in my lifetime that has meant learning a whole range of new skills. Maybe as I think about the Tyne Tunnel, I long to go back to the days when I could put some coins in the palm of a real person, I had so much more confidence in them. However, I thinks that the new system is undoubtedly faster, more efficient and in these day, more Covid safe. Thanks to Adam, I now know how the system works today and will travel through the Tyne Tunnel with greater confidence. I wonder about my faith and the Church, in much the same way, I long for the olden days when things looked different, but can I really stand in the way of progress?