North East Joint Transport<\/a> Committee, said:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m pleased that, after much procrastination, the government has finally decided to show some support for the work we are doing to reopen the Leamside Line. The Leamside Line is one of the most important pieces of transport infrastructure in the North East and its reopening will deliver enormous economic, social and environmental benefits to the region \u2013 it\u2019s a no-brainer as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n\u201cThe award by government of \u00a3350,000 to Transport North East is a welcome contribution to the cost of the first stage of business case development for what we are calling \u201cLeamside South\u201d, the reopening of a stretch of disused line from Washington to Ferryhill. \u00a0This will complement the work we are doing on the Washington Metro Loop \u2013 a new metro extension that will use the northern section of the mothballed Leamside Line. Work on the Washington Metro Loop business case is much more advanced because we have funded the start of it ourselves and we\u2019re working to secure the remaining funding as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to take this opportunity to clear up some confusion. Despite rumours to the contrary, the government has not agreed to fund the reopening of any part of the Leamside Line. In fact on many occasions it has said the opposite \u2013 that the North East will need to fund the line\u2019s reopening. Whilst I wholeheartedly disagree with this position, it is important to be honest and clear in the face of the government\u2019s confusing and misleading \u201cNetwork North\u201d communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn two months\u2019 time we will have a new combined authority in the region and I will work with my fellow council leaders and the new Mayor to make this scheme a priority \u2013 both locally and for the next national government. It is a critical project for the economic future of our region and we need to start making concrete plans to get building.\u201d<\/p>\n
RIA North Chair, Dave Maddison said: \u201cWe welcome and support this announcement as a key step in delivering the Leamside Line, a line that would address the connectivity and capacity challenges faced by the railway in the North East and beyond. <\/p>\n
\u201cRIA North has consistently advocated for the reopening of the Leamside Line to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits to the region and to remove bottlenecks on the East Coast Main Line. We look forward to working with Transport North East and the new Mayor, on behalf of the rail supply community, to develop the Leamside South business case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Transport North East<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North East has been awarded funding which will be used to develop a new business case for Leamside South \u2013 a section on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[7,11],"class_list":["post-18173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","tag-transport","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}