The Tyne and Wear Metro, also locally known as the Metro, is a light rail system in North East England, serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland. It opened in 1980 and in 2007–2008 provided 40 million public journeys on its network of nearly 78 kilometres (48 mi). It is the second largest of the three rapid transit metro systems in the UK, after the London Underground; the other being Glasgow Subway. It is operated by the British rail subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, on behalf of Nexus.

The Metro is usually described as Britain's first modern light rail system. It can be considered a hybrid system, displaying elements of light rail, heavy underground metro, and longer-distance, higher speed suburban and interurban railway systems.

Metro is an 'open access' network with no fixed ticket controls. Despite this, the Tyne and Wear Metro has a higher level of passenger income per year (£40 million in 2009/2010) than any other light rail system outside London. Checks are made by roving patrols of inspectors. Ticket gates are due to be re-installed at several main stations during 2011, after an upgrade of the system's ticket machines. The original gates, which were found on every station when the system was opened, were removed in the late 80s because of safety concerns. They remain in place at several key stations to assist with crowd control.

Tyne and Wear /ˌtaɪn ənd ˈwɪər/ is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. It consists of the five metropolitan boroughs of South Tyneside, North Tyneside, City of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and the City of Sunderland.

Prior to reforms in 1974, the territory comprising the county of Tyne and Wear straddled the border between the counties of Northumberland and County Durham. North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne had previously existed within of Northumberland, whereas South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland were all previously within the borders of County Durham, with the River Tyne forming the border of the two counties.

Tyne and Wear is bounded on the east by the North Sea, and as a ceremonial county, shares borders with Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south.

Tyne and Wear County Council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.