'Confidence' rail projects will go ahead despite cuts

The Leamside Line, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Tursdale in County Durham, closed in the 1960s

Plans to reopen a disused railway line could still go ahead despite the government scrapping a major railway fund, the North East mayor has said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the cut to the Restoring Your Railway fund on Monday, claiming a £22bn hole in the country’s finances meant spending reductions were needed.

But Mayor Kim McGuinness said the North East Combined Authority (NECA) would still press ahead with plans for the Leamside Line.

This would also allow for the proposed extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro service to Washington.

Kim McGuinness told a meeting of the NECA cabinet on Tuesday she was "very confident that few of our plans, if any, are impacted by [the chancellor's] statement," according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service

“We will still push on with extending the Metro to Washington and reopening the Leamside Line," she said.

Business case

However, plans to reopen the station in Ferryhill have fallen victim to the decision to axe the Restoring Your Railway fund.

It was one of nine projects selected in July 2022 to share in the £15m pot.

Ms McGuinness said that Ferryhill station could be reopened when the Leamside line was.

"The plans that we have are still very much there," she added.

Labour's North East mayor Kim McGuinness and deputy mayor Martin Gannon announced a funding package for a Metro extension earlier this month

At the meeting, members agreed an £8m fund to develop an Online Business Case for the Washington Metro Loop, produced by operator Nexus.

A further £600,000 was agreed to commission a strategic outline business case for the southern section of the Leamside Line.

The line, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Tursdale in County Durham, closed in the 1960s.

As well as part of it being used for the extension of the Metro to Washington, the reopening would also free up capacity on the East Coast Main Line.