Better public transport for everyone is the destination

February 18, 2024

“If people get a railroad, it is all they want; they do not care how or by whom it is done.”

Robert Stephenson said that nearly 200 years ago. The man who invented the Rocket. A railway pioneer. And he was right about the transformative power of the railways.

In 2019, just after I was elected Mayor, I spoke to a teacher at Ashington Academy. She said it was always the same story. Every September she’d see 20 to 30 of her former students waiting at the bus stop to go to college in Newcastle. And by January it would be down to 4 or 5. The cold and wet, the cost, and the unreliable service meant that few persevered.

That’s the difference that transport makes. A bad service closes down life chances. A good one opens up new opportunities.

The next generation won’t have this problem. They’ll be able to get the train to Newcastle in 35 minutes. A journey time cut in half. And they’ll travel on the new Northumberland Line.

This new railway is real. You can see the stations being built. Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park.

It’ll open this summer, with services from Ashington to Newcastle, via Newsham and Seaton Deleval. The other stations will be opened once they’re completed.

You can also see some formidable engineering challenges, like I did at Northumberland Park. There’s almost no space to build the new platform opposite the existing Metro station, except on some very steep land. As construction proceeded, engineers found large voids under the adjacent flats. That’s not uncommon in our part of the world, given that we’ve been digging coal out of the ground for two thousand years. They’ve had to pump in thousands of tonnes of grouting to protect against future subsidence.

The Northumberland Line is the only new passenger line being built in England and Wales. Like any major engineering project it’s been a team effort. Northumberland County Council and the Department of Transport working on it for years.

People have talked about opening it since the 1990s. Back in 2007 Wansbeck MP Denis Murphy and Blyth MP Ronnie Campbell started a debate in Parliament. Denis’s successor, Ian Lavery, kept up the pressure. Supported all the while by local campaigners, including SENRUG – South East Northumberland Rail Users’ Group. I’ve met with them many times. Their technical knowledge is impressive. I only got involved after I was elected as North of Tyne Mayor in 2019.

It’s not been plain sailing, if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor.

At one point the Government wanted to cut the number of stations. I spoke to the then rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris and persuaded him not to. At another point they wanted to cut the service from half hourly to hourly. I said that would make the project unviable. They eventually agreed with me.

Enabling people to get where they need to go is crucial. You could have a world class college or thriving business park but if people can’t get to it everyone misses out.

A railway line brings benefits in both directions. Yes – it will make it easier for people living in Ashington to get to Newcastle to study and work. But it will also open up Ashington for visitors to explore and play as people move in the opposite direction. We’ve invested in Ashington businesses to help them to be ready for these new opportunities.

And it isn’t just about Ashington. The North of Tyne has invested £10 million into the project. From building a bridge in Blyth, renovating Newcastle Central Station, and making it easier for everyone to get from their homes to the stations on the route.
This is the first step towards building a Total Transport Network. I negotiated our £6.1 billion devolution deal with Central Government. And I’ll use it to build London-style fully integrated public transport. Under public control. With cross-ticketing on Metro, bus, rail and ferry. Low fares for everyone, and free travel for young people 18 and under. Every city, town and village connected by buses, the Metro and rail system. New rail or bus routes to the Outer West of Newcastle, and to Team Valley in Gateshead. Extending the Metro into Washington. Relaying track on the old wagon way to get trains running from Northumberland Park to Percy Main. Reopening the Leamside Line in County Durham.

While much of the country remains stuck in traffic, in the North East we’re the heirs of Stephenson. The Northumberland Line is just the beginning. Better public transport for everyone is the destination.