(22 Feb 2023, 10:09 pm)Storx wrote Yeah totally agreed. It's also something that's been discussed on another forum lately but if you connected the ECML / Bishop Auckland lines together at Newton Aycliffe you could give a direct service upto Newcastle in around 40 minutes aswell from both places which would be a massive benefit.

It's a piss easy one to do aswell in comparison to other bonker ideas lately (Consett Line). It's the sort of connectivity the region needs, not to mention linking the work places at Aycliffe. It's bonkers the ECML just passes Newton Aycliffe the size of the place.

See:


It's a really underutilised line imo, could even open an extra station right in the heart of the town.

Would be nice but we're never that lucky, up until 2017, the service between Darlington and Bishop Auckland was every 2 hours which was hopelessly impracticable. In 2021 there was supposedly plans to try and up the service to half hourly in 2023 but doubt that's going to materialise any time soon...

The orange line above was actually originally a railway line in the past, now its essentially just somewhere to walk along.