The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Plan to cut rail services ‘one step forward and two steps back’
ANGRY LEADERS SAY LNER PROPOSALS RISK UNDERMINING REOPENING OF LINE
a third train to London, due to capacity constraints on the ECML north of York.
The revival of those plans has left council leaders in the North East fuming, at a time when they are urging more people to use public transport and celebrating the upcoming return of passenger trains between Newcastle and Ashington.
Services on the restored Northumberland Line are due to start operating this summer, with JTC members having celebrated on Tuesday as they signed off on plans to integrate the route’s ticket fares with the
Tyne and Wear Metro’s Pop card. But the prospect of other towns seeing their rail links reduced in the months that follow has become a source of huge frustration. Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson warned that the move would “significantly remove a lot of commuter transport here”, adding: “At a time when we are opening up opportunities [on the Northumberland Line], this seems wrong to me.”
Sunderland City Council’s Graeme Miller claimed the region was being “disregarded” and called the potential timetable shake-up “disgraceful”.
He added: “It is one step forward and two steps back. It doesn’t value the 2.2 million people in the area we represent.” LNER declined to offer a new comment when contacted by The Chronicle.
The publicly-owned rail operator said before Christmas that its plans would “be worth millions of pounds to the region’s economy”.
A spokesperson added at the time: “To enable faster trains, increase services and passenger numbers, we recognise our enhancements may not satisfy everyone, but the proposed timetable will be of benefit to the greatest number of customers across the North.”
Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon said he had been given assurances by the Government that infrastructure improvements would be made to increase capacity on the ECML, but that will not happen until “2027 at the earliest”.
He told the JTC meeting in Gateshead: “The additional services on the ECML will benefit the entire country – other than the North East. We know the increases in income on that line will be reinvested in the network and benefit the nation, but it causes problems for us here.
“We have continued to object to that and that remains our position.”
Coun Gannon added: “This is constraining the entire economy, the social life, the cultural life – right across the whole spectrum it has a profound impact on the lives of people in the North East of England.”
At a time when we are opening up opportunities, this seems wrong to me