Direct rail services from County Durham to Teesside set to be reduced
Passengers boarding the majority of trains headed for destinations such as Middlesbrough, Redcar and Saltburn[1] will need to change at Darlington.
Trains currently running on the Bishop Line, which also serves Shildon, Newton Aycliffe and Heighington, can suffer delays due to congestion caused by crossing the East Coast Mainline.
But proposed plans to ease the pressures include creating new platforms for the regional services, operated by Northern. It is believed the improvements would increase services to up to four trains an hour on the Tees Valley line and two trains an hour to Bishop Auckland[2].
The changes are part of the multi-million redevelopment of Darlington[4] station, which is due to finish in 2025. It is hoped the upgraded station will promote the town as the “gateway of the Tees Valley” and will have a similar positive impact on the surrounding area as London’s Kings Cross station, Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said. Mr Houchen added: "Darlington Station is the major transport project in our region and its overhaul will help unlock more trains and secure better more frequent local services by easing the bottleneck caused by the Tees Valley line crossing the East Coast Main Line. "It all means we can boost the frequency of services for Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool while providing the amazing cutting edge station the town deserves." The project, totalling more than £140million, will create three new platforms on the east side of the existing station to accommodate current and future services, along with a footbridge linking the new platforms and building parts of the existing station and tie it more closely to the town centre. An upgrade to the western side of the station is also planned, alongside new road layouts, wider pavements and improvements to walking and cycling access to make the station easier to reach. Caroline Pearce, chair of the Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership, hopes the new station will attract more people to travel along the Bishop Line. She said: “We understand the new track layout at Darlington will still provide the capability to run services from Bishop Auckland through to Teesside without changing trains at Darlington. "This is important for communities in Bishop Auckland, Shildon, and Newton Aycliffe to access jobs and training in Teesside, and equally for employers in South Durham to attract workforce from Teesside.
“In terms of the accessibility of the new station layout, we understand step-free routes will be available for all interchanges at Darlington, using the existing station concourse for changes to northbound services, and southbound services passengers will use the new interchange bridge to reach the new east-side Platform five. "A pair of lifts will be available at each end of the bridge for passengers to use. The formal interchange time for use in ticketing and journey planners has not yet been confirmed. “The actual timetable for Bishop-Auckland to Teesside services has not yet been confirmed and will be developed by Northern Trains, in conjunction with other train operators. “The Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership will be consulted on the timetable and we would ask anyone wishing to feed into our response to contact us when the proposed timetable is available. Please follow the Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership on Facebook for more information”. References