Call to save rundown rail route

Transport bosses in Tyne and Wear are calling for a rundown rail route to be preserved for future development.

Network Rail wants to remove all track from the Leamside Line, which runs from Gateshead to the East Coast Main Line at Ferryhill, near Durham.

The line has not been used since 1991, when a freight terminal at Washington, near Sunderland, closed.

But the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) said the line had "huge potential for growth".

Now PTA bosses and officials from Nexus, which runs the Tyne and Wear Metro, are appealing to Network Rail to halt the plans.

Crowded roads

Joe Lawson, vice chairman of the PTA, said: "The route features in a number of regional transport strategies as an effective way to increase mainline rail capacity and for future passenger use.

"It is ideally set for a park-and-ride facility from Belmont outside Durham as well as local traffic from the Fencehouses and Washington, areas providing a fast journey into Newcastle, as an alternative to the crowded roads across the Tyne.

"The Leamside Line has been neglected in recent years, but that is no reason why we should not now look to the future and plan to reopen it to traffic."

There are also hopes the line could be used to transport coal imported into Tyneside to power stations in Yorkshire.