Tees Valley line

Tees Valley line
Northern Rail Pacer DMU 142021 approaches Longbeck railway station with a service to Darlington. July 2011.
Overview
System National Rail
Locale County Durham
North Yorkshire
North East England
Operation
Owner Network Rail
Operator(s) Northern
TransPennine Express
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Tees Valley Line
Year
closed
Weardale Railway
Durham to Bishop
Auckland Line
1968
 Bishop Auckland
South Durham and
Lancashire Union Railway
1962
Clarence Railway
to Ferryhill
1963
Brusselton Lane
& freight lines
pre-
1955
 Shildon
 Newton Aycliffe
Clarence Railway
to Stillington
1963
 Heighington
Newton Aycliffe Rail Vehicle
manufacturing facility
 A1(M) 
Darlington & Tebay Branch
to Barnard Castle
1964
 North Road
East Coast Main Line
to Newcastle
to Eaglescliffe
 Darlington
East Coast Main Line to York
 Dinsdale
 Teesside Airport Durham Tees Valley Airport
 Allens West
Northallerton to Eaglescliffe Line
to Northallerton
 Eaglescliffe
Durham Coast Line to Hartlepool
Tees Rail Bridge
over River Tees
 Thornaby
 Tees Marshalling Yard
 Newport
1915
 Middlesbrough
Esk Valley Line to Whitby
 Cargo Fleet
1990
Cleveland Railway
(later Normanby Branch)
1966
Eston Branch Railway
closed
 South Bank
Freight lines to
Lackenby, Teesport and Wilton
 Grangetown
1991
Tata Steel Europe
Redcar Works
 British Steel Redcar
 Redcar Central
 Redcar East
 Longbeck
 Marske
Saltburn West Junction
Whitby-Loftus freight line
to Boulby Mine
 Saltburn

The Tees Valley line is a name for the railway route between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn via Darlington, Middlesbrough and Redcar. Also operated on the line are services from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Middlesbrough, Redcar and Saltburn via Darlington (using the East Coast Main Line between Newcastle and Darlington). The line between Darlington and Bishop Auckland has been re-branded The Bishop Line and is supported by the Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership.[1]

Beyond Bishop Auckland, the railway line continues as the re-opened heritage Weardale Railway. A regular freight service used to operate on weekdays moving coal from Wolsingham to Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station and Scunthorpe Steelworks, but this working ceased in 2013.[2]

Service

All trains along the route are currently operated by Northern with Class 142 Pacers and occasionally Class 156 SuperSprinters.[3] TransPennine Express operate fifteen services per day in each direction from Manchester Airport to Middlesbrough via the line.[4]

Between Darlington and Middlesbrough/Saltburn there is a service running almost every half-hour during the daytime, becoming roughly hourly in the evenings. The service to Bishop Auckland is more sparse, running hourly at peak times and two hourly off peak. A once weekly parliamentary service in each direction stops at Tees-side Airport.[3] The new Northern Rail franchise operator Northern has announced its intention to increase the service to Bishop Auckland to hourly (15 each way weekdays and 12 each way on Sundays) once the new franchise agreement came into force on 1 April 2016.[5] The unpopular Pacer units are also to be withdrawn once new rolling stock is delivered in 2018, though the Tees Valley line will more likely see refurbished Sprinter units than the brand new ones being built for Northern.[6]

The towns and villages served by the line are listed below.

The Bishop Line between Bishop Auckland and Darlington is designated as a community rail route and has its own community rail partnership (CRP).[7]

History

The section of line between Bishop Auckland and the East Coast Main Line, as well as the section between Dinsdale Station near Middleton St George and Eaglescliffe station, follow the original route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.[8]

The line from Middlesbrough to Saltburn, as well as the freight line to Boulby mine, were part of the Whitby Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway (WRMU). This extended to Whitby, until it was closed on 5 May 1958.[9]

In March 2015, a one kilometre section of electrified track was laid to the west of the line between Heighington and Newton Aycliffe to allow low speed testing of the Class 800/801s being built at Hitachi Newton Aycliffe.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ Home Bishop Line
  2. ↑ Shannon, Paul (February 2014). "Railways Illustrated". Freight Review 2013 (132). Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 Bishop Auckland-Saltburn timetable Northern Rail
  4. ↑ North East to Manchester Airport & Liverpool timetable First Transpennine Express
  5. ↑ Northern Franchise Improvements - DfT
  6. ↑ Arnold, Stuart (20 February 2018). "Hate travelling on Pacer trains? Well 'wrong routes' mean you won't be getting new replacements". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "ACORP Summary map" (PDF). Association of Community Rail Partnerships. 28 July 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  8. ↑ "The Stockton Railway". This is Stockton on Tees. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  9. ↑ "Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  10. ↑ Hitachi Rail Europe's Newton Aycliffe factory connected to national rail network The Journal 25 March 2015
  11. ↑ Newton Aycliffe's Hitachi train plant connected to main line BBC News 25 March 2015
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