Chris Heaton-Harris, Rail Minister, has announced that the government will invest £500 million into railway funding for improvements to rail services in the North East. This will include £337 million to bring new trains to the Tyne and Wear Metro line and £1.5m to reopen the Ashington-Blyth-Tyne line.
The government has said it will invest £337 million to bring new trains to the Tyne and Wear Metro line, which will provide better information for passengers as well as more comfortable seating.
Northumberland County Council’s project to reopen the Ashington-Blyth-Tyne line, which closed in 1963 during the Beeching cuts, will also receive a £1.5 million investment from the Department for Transport. The cuts – which were proposed by British Rail chief Dr Richard Beeching – ended passenger services on around a third of the rail network, closing up to 5,000 miles of track and over 2,300 stations across the UK.
The government will also provide £250,000 in funding to redevelop Middlesbrough Station, which will be matched by the Tees Valley Combined Authority. The investment would enable the station to accommodate longer and more frequent trains for passengers.
“We are committed to reinvigorating rail connections across the North East, improving access to jobs, leisure and education across the region… Levelling up the North is a priority for this government. This investment – to reconnect isolated communities, improve stations and deliver new trains – shows that we are putting our money where our mouth is.”
– Chris Heaton-Harris, Rail Minister
The government’s reversal scheme will fund a further £1.5 million for the Ashington-Blyth-Tyne Line in Northumberland, the Fleetwood line in Lancashire, and an Ideas Fund. The Ideas Fund has received £300,000 and aims to encourage innovative ideas that can be considered for further funding in the future.
At ethical partnership we are working increasingly on projects such as new rail stations and refurbishment of existing stations, logistics hubs, and on the planning aspects of road developments. As an environmentally-conscious organisation, we seek to do so in a way that means the public will benefit from these projects, with as little environmental harm as possible.
We have a track record of researching the ways in which new technologies can be integrated to minimise pollution and energy usage. We hope to work more on projects that enable us to fully utilise the benefits of renewable energy, in turn helping to protect the environment. We are excited to follow the developments of this North East railway funding and what it means for the future of our rail networks.
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