Anger as 'fairy-tale' Leamside Line promise scrapped within 24 hours

The Government has U-turned on its commitment to reopen the Leamside railway line, just 24 hours after making the massive announcement.

A restoration of the mothballed line, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Tursdale in County Durham, was included in initial announcements about the ‘Network North’ programme revealed by Rishi Sunak on Wednesday.

The prime minister pledged to invest in hundreds of transport projects around the North and Midlands, using £36bn he says will be saved by scrapping the northern leg of HS2.

But, just a day later, all reference to reopening the Leamside Line has been removed from the Network North website and the promise seemingly abandoned.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Thursday lunchtime, roads minister Richard Holden confirmed that the Government was simply “committed to looking into” the Leamside Line project.

A furious Henri Murison, the chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said pulling the plug on the Leamside Line pledge made the entire Network North project a “fairytale”.

He added: “If this is what they have done and they have gone back on their word, how can we believe anything else that they have said in the last week? How can the prime minister have any credibility on the commitments he has made?

“If they don’t honour their commitments made on this it would be significant evidence of a betrayal of the North of England.”

Cllr Martin Gannon, chairman of the North East Joint Transport Committee has responded to an apparent U-turn by government, urging for clarity on the matter and a commitment to re-open the Leamside Line without delay.

He said: “In the recent history of government U-turns this one has been done in record time – less than 24 hours. In light of the Prime Minister’s speech and the confusing communications around it, we are seeking urgent clarification from the government over how the Leamside Line and the other schemes referenced will be funded.

“The North East needs to see a reversal of a long history of under investment in transport for the benefit of generations to come. This must include a commitment to fund the re-opening of the Leamside Line not yet another broken

promise.”

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness said the Leamside announcement made on Wednesday was “always a scam”.

She added: “The Leamside line was included in all the regional briefings to the media and politicians and within a day it had been deleted from their investment list.

“The Prime Minister’s promise to the North East didn’t even last 24 hours – only a fool would trust Rishi Sunak again.”

Restoring the Leamside Line has been one of North East leaders’ biggest ambitions for years.

It would allow for an extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro through Washington and free up capacity to run more services on the East Coast Main Line, by providing an alternative route for freight trains.

The cost of restoring just the northern section of the disused route, closed in 1964 under the Beeching cuts, was put last year at £745million.

On Wednesday, a bullet point list of North East projects included in Network North stated: “The Leamside Line, closed in 1964, will also be reopened.” That web page has now been taken down and there is no mention of Leamside in a 40-page Network North policy document, only a pledge to bring train services to Ferryhill.

Mr Holden, who is the Conservative MP for North West Durham, told the LDRS: “We are committed to looking into it [Leamside]. We want to work with local partners to consider the different uses for the route and what their priorities would be for transport in the area.”

The roads minister suggested that the Leamside Line decision could be made by local leaders, potentially using a £1.8bn settlement that the North East will receive from the next stage of the Government’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement.

He added: “This is part of a much bigger discussions around mayoral devolution, the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement going to the North East – right across the North we are seeing something like a 40% uplift, about £2bn now we are seeing for the North East CRSTS package.

“Some of the decisions are going to be down to local people, elected members, and how they decide to use this funding.”

John McCabe, chief executive of the North East England Chamber of Commerce, said: “The Government ran down the clock on HS2 over a number of years and it seems to have taken them just a matter of hours to do the same on the Leamside Line.

"Big, bold announcements made at party conferences are utterly meaningless if they aren’t backed up by fast action.

"The case for the Leamside Line is well known and has been strengthened by having cross-party support in the North East.

"I hope those who have long advocated for the Leamside Line will join us in continuing to do so until this essential piece of infrastructure is finally delivered.”