"The mayor is saying that when the new platform at Darlington is finished, they can run trains every 5 minutes on the line"
Dont fall into the trap believing the fairy stories that the mayor makes up. The branch line from Darlington to Middlesbrough, Saltburn, Hartlepool and beyond is not signalled for a service with a five minute headway. The sections from passed the airport to South Bank and Hartlepool have recently been resignalled for the current frequency of trains with an increase of frequency through Hartlepool and paths for freight trains in between as required and works are in hand to resignal South Bank to Saltburn in the near future with no planned increase in train frequency. The life expectancy of the new signalling is upto 50 years.
Further, trains heading to Bishop Auckland will still have to cross the main line at Darlington unless the service is reduced to a basic shuttle to and from Darlington but the mayor is refusing to clarify.