Relinking the railway.

Deprived areas of the UK would gain economic benefits from greater connectivity, argues PHILIP HAIGH

Consett’s steelworks closed in 1980, its railway became redundant. No longer would iron ore trains climb the line’s steep gradients.

It’s fair to say that the closure ripped the heart from the town. It existed for the steelworks which, at its peak, employed around 6,000. Competition from buses had led British Rail to close the town’s station in 1955, but a line remained for those heavy ore trains.

The town’s final rail passengers came and went on March 17 1984, with a railtour from Newcastle organised by the Derwent Rail Action Group. By this time the station had been demolished, so passengers alighted from their coaches behind 46026 Leicestershire and

Derbyshire Yeomanry by temporary steps. Efforts to retain a passenger service to combat the effects of the steelworks closing came to nothing. Consett’s residents were left in the hands of bus companies, with nothing approaching the permanency of a rail service.

Would that happen today? Should that happen today? If the Government is serious about ‘levelling up’ to bridge inequalities across the country, it’s a fine example of how one nationalised industry (BR) could have helped those affected by the actions of another - in Consett’s case, the British Steel Corporation.

But this was the early 1980s. Rail had not begun its slow climb back to respectability, headed by the likes of BR’s Network SouthEast and InterCity divisions. That last train was only ten years before rail privatisation became government policy, and so close - yet so far - from the passenger boom that followed.

Consett must join the list of towns that could today, had rail services survived, be decently busy. That list is long, and few English towns have escaped it back to a life with railways. Yet a rail link isn’t always a guarantee of success, as nearby Bishop Auckland can attest. It still has hourly services, but little industry since the demise of coal mining.

Ashington is another north east town living in the shadow of mining and heavy industry. It retains its tracks for the little freight that’s left, having lost its passenger service in 1964. But after years of campaigning by local groups, the return of passenger trains looks a little more likely with even the Government now admitting there could be a case.

But simply having a rail link is not enough - there needs to be something at the other end to justify it. When Consett’s steelworks closed, Newcastle’s heavy industry was also shrinking. A rail link may just have joined two economically struggling areas.

If Bishop Auckland is in difficulty and Darlington doesn’t have the capacity to help with jobs, then the rail line can’t perform to its full potential. If Ashington’s proposed service is to thrive, it needs sufficient employment in North Tyneside to justify the journeys it hopes to provide.

That’s one of the lessons of reopening the Borders Railway in Scotland. Towns such as Galashiels were struggling at a time when Edinburgh was booming and in need of more workers. The rail link gave access to jobs for people living in the Borders. And it gave Edinburgh access to people to fill those jobs.

Improved connectivity features in a recent report looking at Britain’s inequality. Published in February 2020, the UK2070 Commission’s Make No Little Plans report argues that Britain’s transport networks are not fit for purpose. It says there is poor connectivity between major city regions outside London which limits labour market efficiency and supply chains, and that rail networks are on average running 5% above capacity and up to 250% over in the peaks.

“The inherited asymmetrical systems have high-quality rail access to and within London, while large parts of the UK have become distanced, and even excluded. It takes longer to travel from Liverpool to Hull by train than to travel from Liverpool and London - nearly twice the distance. Future growth in travel demand and continued delay in implementation of major infrastructure projects will exacerbate these problems,” the report says.

If that new line into Edinburgh strengthens the Scottish Borders economically and makes it a more attractive place to live, then it’s not sensible to leave the area at the end of a spindly branch facing northwards.

Anyone wanting to head south by rail currently faces a journey that includes an hour going the wrong way. Tweedbank to Carlisle, for example, is 60 miles by road (around 90 minutes). But the rail journey will take three hours and cost £66 for a single (under the current reduced timetables).

While the Labour Party asks whether rail should be a public service or a commercial operation for profit (see News Analysis, pages 28-29), there’s another question: Should the rail network concentrate on today’s economically successful areas or create the conditions - the network - to spread that success?

UK2070 argues: “Many parts of the UK lack viable transport links to areas of prosperity and jobs, which in turn restricts their potential for productivity and quality of life. Peripheral communities have suffered from a spiral of decline, often triggered by the downgrading of transport connections.

“National transport policy must therefore commit to linking the many marginal or excluded towns, coastal and rural settlements in a way that re-injects skills, social networks and investment.”

UK2070 takes as an example Lincolnshire’s coast. It has two stations - Grimsby in the north on the line from Doncaster, and Skegness in the south on the line from Grantham. Louth lies between the two but has not had regular

“While the Labour Party asks whether rail should be a public service or a commercial operation for profit, there’s another question: Should the rail network concentrate on today’s economically successful areas or create the conditions - the network - to spread that success?”

passenger trains since 1970. The market town’s station building remains because it’s listed for architectural merit, but it’s surrounded by housing and light industry.

The area’s rail isolation is made worse by the closure of the direct line between Spalding and Boston, also in 1970. It was part of a policy of removing duplicate lines between major centres. It means that it’s still possible to travel between Peterborough and Grimsby, either via

Doncaster or the slower route via Spalding, Lincoln and Barnetby.

There were sensible economics behind concentrating as much rail traffic on as few lines as possible. It made the most of those tracks, but it condemned those cut off to a more isolated life.

In essence, UK2070 is arguing that rail should form a part of the country’s skeleton. It’s the trellis upon which a rose can grow and bloom. And it should be rail rather than road because of the mode’s environmental advantages, as it notes: “Emissions per road vehicle are still increasing year on year. Investment is needed to expand the capacity to accommodate a switch from private car use.”

Arguing for a return to rail is not new. The Campaign for Better Transport has been pushing this for years, most recently with last year’s report into rail reopenings ( Analysis,

RAIL 873). CBT suggested reopening 166 miles of railways and converting another 177 miles from freight to passenger standard. This would add 72 stations to the network and bring more than 500,000 people within walking distance of a station.

UK2070 doesn’t repeat this work, but in looking at the east coast it suggests building new rail links over the major estuaries on Humberside and Teesside. Until 1981, BR’s Sealink ran ferries between New Holland Pier and Hull Corporation Pier. The opening of the Humber Road Bridge put paid to the service and left rail passengers with a long trip inland.

UK2070 is surely right when it suggests that transport investment alone will not rebalance Britain’s economy, but it seems obvious that leaving communities isolated will not balance the country either.

In pushing forward the rail link between Oxford and Cambridge (which includes rebuilding a derelict railway), the Government has accepted the principle of improving connections between communities without everything flowing through London.

It now needs to extend that concept so that growth is not limited to cities, but spread also to towns with recognition that strong local economies can build into a strong country. There’s a key role for rail and for its leaders in making these arguments.