Government must fund £20million Leamside Line work, says Mayoral candidate

Early work to bring the disused Leamside railway line back into use must start as soon as possible, says Labour's candidate for North East Mayor

Kim McGuinness has started a campaign to convince ministers to fund the Outline Business Case needed to reopen the line.

The line, which runs between Pelaw and Tursdale in County Durham, has been closed to passenger services since the '60s and was completely mothballed in 1992.

Campaigners say its restoration could see a railway station open in Washington for the first time in decades, as well as serving the likes of Fencehouses, the Raintons, Belmont and Shincliffe.

The proposal is also seen as vital to increasing capacity on the congested East Coast Main Line by removing slow-moving freight trains.

And it could pave the way to extending the Tyne and Wear Metro to Washington, with the route extending through Follingsby, then over the Wear and past Penshaw to join the system’s current end-point at South Hylton.

The Washington station could then be directly connected to the Metro’s existing South Shields line, if a new bridge was built over the existing tracks at Pelaw.

Kim McGuinness told a Rail Industry Association conference that the Government had to start the work now if it was to see economic growth in years to come, and the minimum first step was funding the business case: "Reopening this line is clearly vital to the North East. We know Government has u-turned on funding the full plan, but we remain ambitious.

"That’s why today I am calling on the Government to at least now fund the business case for re-opening the line.

“The costs are significant. The outline work for the Washington Metro Loop and the Leamside South – giving us the full Leamside Line over two projects – would easily come close to £20milion.

"If the Government is serious about backing this line, funding this Outline Business Case is a good start.

"We know this is possible. The Northumberland line, linking Newcastle, Ashington and Blyth, is ready to reopen soon, and it did so after Government funded the detailed business case and early site work with a £34million grant.

"Coincidentally, that railway line goes to a key Tory target seat.

Martin Gannon, Gateshead Council leader and chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee, said: "The North East continues to suffer from a major bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line which stifles our economic growth.

"Transport funding in our region is miniscule compared with the significant levels of investment in rail in the south, and we continue to make the case for national funding to help us deliver on our economic goals..”