Trams, driverless cars and rail devolution: ?1bn transport strategy …

Town centre trams, rail devolution and infrastructure for driverless cars are among a raft of radical plans aimed at "revolutionising" travel across the Tees Valley.

A programme of 26 transport proposals could be on the cards for Teesside, Hartlepool and Darlington, aimed at improving rail links and road journeys across the area. A £20m tram development with 15 circular ‘hop on, hop off’ town centre services is among headline pledges, along with potential devolution of rail services and infrastructure for driverless cars.

Highways development includes improvements on the A66 at Middlesbrough and Redcar as well as a £250m Northern Link relief road connecting the A66 with the A1M. The plan also earmarks £83m for highway repairs, an overhaul of Middlesbrough Bus Station and £15m for further development work on a potential four-lane Tees flyover.

The transport vision would be delivered using £1bn in funding secured after the scrapping of the northern leg of the HS2 rail line. If accepted by TVCA leaders later this month, Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, said it would transform the region into "an economic powerhouse", bringing improved access to jobs and a "positive difference to everyone's day-to-day travel".

A scheme to provide subsidised access to cars which would be linked to employers could come to fruition. Meanwhile a proposal to build the infrastructure for self-driving cars would form part of a £60m investment in an Urban Traffic Management and Control Centre.

Mr Houchen said the technology would monitor traffic flows, pedestrian and cyclist movements and accidents to influence traffic light systems and real-time bus displays at stations and shelters. Data collected would also be used in the consideration of planning applications for development in the area.

A digital transport system was always part of the plan, said Mr Houchen, but his goal was to create "the most advanced transport system in the UK". On the railways, a "metro-style" service is proposed with the promise of trains every five to seven minutes from the area's existing and proposed new stations.

The plan includes putting together a business case for electrification of the rail network from Northallerton to Saltburn to allow electric trains on the East Coast Main Line and Transpennine line to extend to the Tees Valley. A direct rail link between Darlington and Hartlepool is proposed along with delivery of a third platform at Middlesbrough Station "at a faster pace" to increase LNER services to and from London and deliver additional Northern services to Newcastle.

It comes as the TVCA also shared its intention to draw up a rail devolution proposition to transfer control of services and funding to the authority. Mr Houchen insisted the current service was not "fit-for-purpose" and the aim was to make rail travel "a genuine alternative".

He said: "When we have spent all of this money on infrastructure and new stations, it means you can get a train from Darlington or any of the stations every five, six, seven minutes, with much more capacity. So we can have bigger, longer trains because the platforms and infrastructure can take them.

"You can also have more destinations. We're promising to explore, for example, how we can connect down from Stockton, Thornaby and Middlesbrough into Marton and a Nunthorpe parkway to get rid of problems on the Marton crawl.

"The idea being we are delivering a Metro-style system by spending all of this money on the infrastructure so when it's all finished we will have trains every five, six, seven minutes. It will mean rail travel could be a genuine alternative whereas at the minute it's not up to standard which is why we're spending hundreds of millions of pounds doing just this."

A £1m feasibility study is also proposed to explore extending passenger rail along the Saltburn to Boulby freight line. Efforts to reopen the line to passengers were launched in 2020.

In December, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Cllr Luke Myer, called on the Tees Valley Mayor to invest in the scheme. Responding to the latest news, he said: "I will work with anybody, across party lines, to bring jobs and opportunities for my home. I grew up in East Cleveland, and have seen how transport has been cut away over the last fourteen years. It's time for a change, and that's what we're campaigning for."

Following the controversial cancellation of the northern leg of HS2, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised an additional £8.55bn of funding to be provided through city region sustainable transport settlements (CRSTS). The Tees Valley was allocated a total of £978m of funding for the second round of CRSTS funding for years 2027/28 to 2031/32.

According to a TVCA report, the Government may bring some of the second round of funding - three times bigger than the first - into 2025/26 and 2026/27. Regarding the scrapping of HS2, Mr Houchen said even if it had been delivered "it would have benefited nobody in the North East" and said his plans would bring results for the region at a much faster pace.

Cash has already been lined up for a new £150m bus and railway station at Teesside Park^[1] as well as an overhaul of Teesside Airport^[2] railway station with a further £30m being put towards revitalising the Transporter Bridge.

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References

1. ^{^} a new £150m bus and railway station at Teesside Park (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Teesside Airport (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
3. ^{^} go here (www.gazettelive.co.uk)