Teesside-2
Join Date: Dec 2023
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Anyone have the railway station figures during the boom years 2003/2008 ish..Nearly a million passengers…so how well did it do then..a time when people maybe found it necessary to catch a train more than today?
Me thinks..not very good!
Me thinks..not very good!
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I stand to be corrected but there's never been any more than one train per week each way in the 20 years I've been involved, and I think the shuttle bus was gone way before that
1980s before the Conservatives privatised the railways. After then they wanted to reduce the time it took to get to Darlington, so cut services along the line. For my first job at the airport it was handy on days when the weather was no good for cycling, or I couldn't borrow my mothers car.
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When the airport station opened there was a thirty minute frequency in each direction. In those days the service was reliable with cancellations unusual unlike today and there was an electric milk float with a passenger cabin that connected with every train but sadly not many passengers. The railway operator was preasured to speed up the service between Darlington and Middlesbrough so the underused station at the airport had the service cut.
Mr Houchen is telling his disciples that a train stopping will add less than a minute to the timetable but this is noncence as a railway working timetable shows several minutes for deceleration, station dwell and acceleration so you can anticipate resistance from the railway to stopping trains unless there are lots of passengers for all of those extra flights that certain politicians and members of this group seem to like inventing.
Mr Houchen is telling his disciples that a train stopping will add less than a minute to the timetable but this is noncence as a railway working timetable shows several minutes for deceleration, station dwell and acceleration so you can anticipate resistance from the railway to stopping trains unless there are lots of passengers for all of those extra flights that certain politicians and members of this group seem to like inventing.
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Trying to keep the politics out of this but here are a few points with regards to the airport railway station
- The wind-down of the station must have happened sometime before summer 1996 (the June 1996 timetable shows 1 train a day stopping at the airport). Station usage data published by Office of Rail and Road (ORR), goes back to 1997-98 and Teesside Airport station has not been used significantly at any point since then (low of 2 passengers in 2022-23, high of 338 in 2019-20). Whatever the situation, usage of the station was minimal even in the airport's peak passenger years of 2000-2008.
- The line does not appear to be well used anyway. There are 17 stations on the Tees Valley line which together serve 5.6m passenger trips a year (although not all these people are using the Tees Valley line itself). However, this is hugely skewed by stations with fast links to big cities (ie Darlington, Eaglescliffe, Thornaby & Middlesbrough) but places like Shildon, Newton Aycliffe, Heighington, North Road, Dinsdale, Allens West, South Bank, Redcar East, Longbeck & Marske together average 160 passengers a day each. Clearly the Mayor needs to get more people using the line but with only 2 trains an hour running between Darlington & Middlesbrough, there is not the convenience of a urban metro like we would see in places like Newcastle or Manchester and this must reduce demand.
- The Darlington station redevelopment will hugely increase capacity on the line as local trains will be able to run east of Darlington without having to cross the East Coast mainline. The mayor is saying that when the new platform at Darlington is finished, they can run trains every 5 minutes on the line. One might question the demand for 12 trains an hour but when this work is complete, the plan is clearly to run a more regular timetable. This means that stopping at Teesside Airport (and a future Teesside Park station) will not be such a major issue. Furthermore, all trains do not necessarily need to stop at all stations along the line.
- Presumably the future station usage is a combination of airport passengers and people who work on the airport site?
- The cost of refurbishing the station was only £6m in 2020. Link Presumably this was cancelled due to COVID?
- Finally, given that Network rail are responsible for Teesside Airport station, and that a lot of the issues appear to come from a lack of maintenance - why is the mayor coughing up £20m out of his budget to bring it back into usage? Shouldn't some of this come from Network Rail?
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"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.
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.
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"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.
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.
As you appear to have some expertise in this area, perhaps you could share your knowledge and help us all understand that the frequency per hour could be east of Darlington given the signalling (and any other) constraints.
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Train paths:
Middlesbrough/ Eaglescliffe to Hartlepool every 3 mins
Hartlepool to Sunderland every 6 mins
Sunderland to Newcastle every 2 mins
Saltburn to Redcar every 6 mins
Redcar to Eaglescliffe every 3 mins
Eaglescliffe to Darlo every 4 mins
Northallerton to Eaglescliffe every 8-9 mins
A lot of the area it can be seen to run signal to signal with trains. Only thing that really hinders capacity are level crossings.
Middlesbrough/ Eaglescliffe to Hartlepool every 3 mins
Hartlepool to Sunderland every 6 mins
Sunderland to Newcastle every 2 mins
Saltburn to Redcar every 6 mins
Redcar to Eaglescliffe every 3 mins
Eaglescliffe to Darlo every 4 mins
Northallerton to Eaglescliffe every 8-9 mins
A lot of the area it can be seen to run signal to signal with trains. Only thing that really hinders capacity are level crossings.
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Appologies to tigertanka. Wasnt intending to patronised you or accuse you of believing the mayor. A figure of speech.
Harold makes the point. A five minute scheduled headway is not possible given that we have flat or level junctions, and if you factor in overlap time at junctions especialy if trains have different performance and some have intermediate stops not to mention recovery time.
The Tyne Wear Metro can achieve a six minute headway in the rush hour with signaling that does not have to accommodate slow heavy freight trains.
Harold makes the point. A five minute scheduled headway is not possible given that we have flat or level junctions, and if you factor in overlap time at junctions especialy if trains have different performance and some have intermediate stops not to mention recovery time.
The Tyne Wear Metro can achieve a six minute headway in the rush hour with signaling that does not have to accommodate slow heavy freight trains.
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Believe the plan is bishop trains to Darlington only apart from maybe early morning late evening and the saltburn will be the same. That way more trains can run on the mainline.
plan is also the same at Newcastle station with northern nothing will run via all stopping
Hexham to Middlesbrough will be change trains and again the Morpeth’s
plan is also the same at Newcastle station with northern nothing will run via all stopping
Hexham to Middlesbrough will be change trains and again the Morpeth’s
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Believe the plan is bishop trains to Darlington only apart from maybe early morning late evening and the saltburn will be the same. That way more trains can run on the mainline.
plan is also the same at Newcastle station with northern nothing will run via all stopping
Hexham to Middlesbrough will be change trains and again the Morpeth’s
plan is also the same at Newcastle station with northern nothing will run via all stopping
Hexham to Middlesbrough will be change trains and again the Morpeth’s
Gosh it’s hard to keep up with events!
So the latest is regular cargo flights because of the Red Sea blockades and best one..a potential/possible/maybe runway extension…
Watch this space!
So the latest is regular cargo flights because of the Red Sea blockades and best one..a potential/possible/maybe runway extension…
Watch this space!
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