(26 Nov 2020, 11:48 pm)busmanT wrote A new entrant into the travel market between Ashington and Newcastle is bound to take passengers from existing services - plenty of examples of this across the country. Locally, look what happened when the Metro extended to Sunderland.. And Northern Rail fares, heavily subsidised, are either the same as bus or slightly cheaper.
In all the other cases you mention the train came before the bus, and they have co-existed for many years.

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https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/7...5/detailed

Well let them work together in competition. The sort of competition that de-regulation and privatisation was meant to bring... 

Or, let them complement each other and see the area develop and grow as the new transport links are bound to see the area grow and prosper. 
Cheap land + improved road and rail transport links = developers wet dream. 

(24 Jan 2021, 12:10 am)mb134 wrote £34m for the line in the NE, £760m for the one in the south. 

As far as I'm aware the funding to get the Ashington to Newcastle line open again won't stretch to electrification either? (Please correct me if I'm wrong here mind). Which is horrendous for something opening in the 2020s, in Boris' "green and sustainable recovery from Covid-19" - https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/...65699?s=20.

The electrification thing was put to Shapps and he reckons that electrification wouldn't be future proof. 
He reckons the growth of hydrogen of battery technologies would be more effective. 
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55770529

I'm going to do some digging and find out which tory donors are involved in hydrogen rolling stock. There's bound to be at least several.

Edit: it didn't take long to find a connection between the tories and Porterbrook.
https://www.conservativehome.com/thinkta...eform.html
Sir Adrian Montague is the most senior link between the two.