Great to have MP’s support

I am pleased Sunderland Central MP, Julie Elliott (Echo, October 12 ) has finally joined the campaign to revamp the city’s main railway station.

Along with others, I have been arguing the case for years.

Julie is right to identify nationalised Network Rail as the obstacle – for the City Council, Northern Rail and Nexus have been committed to the project for a long time.

Network Rail is also the obstacle to faster “Northern Connect” rail services between Middlesbrough and Carlisle serving the city.

They have proved very dilatory investing to upgrade the Durham coast line to allow speedier services.

There is a demand for faster services between Tees and Tyne. Currently the direct service, through Sunderland and along the coast, takes about 80 minutes. The wish is to reduce this to an hour.

Without track improvements south of Sunderland the danger is this service will run via the East Coast Main Line and Durham, bypassing the city altogether.

Coun Michael Mordey (Echo, September 30) is right to express his concern but wrong to attack the private operator, Northern, for this situation.

Quite rightly, Northern wants to provide the fastest service.

Nationalised Network Rail needs to get its act together – fast – to help give Sunderland both the station and the train services it should have.

Coun Peter Wood, Conservative, St Michael’s ward