'Little-used' Teesside Airport Station move considered

The experience of arriving at the station has been described as "pretty grim"

Transport bosses are considering moving one of the UK's least-used railway stations to boost its passenger count. 

Teesside Airport Station is more than half a mile (1km) from Durham Tees Valley Airport and is used by only a handful of passengers.

Now the airport has been brought back into public hands and the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) said it wanted to put it into "meaningful use".

It will now looking at relocating it, or putting on a shuttle bus service.

In 2017-18 there were an estimated 98 passenger entries/exits, and in the previous year there were just 32.

TVCA transport officer Steve Payne told a meeting it was now looking at bringing it back into "some sort of meaningful use", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Mr Payne said: "Now the airport is much more of a priority we have much control over that and the opportunity to develop the station again."

'Pretty grim experience'

Hartlepool councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher said previous feasibility work on moving the station found the cost "was absolutely huge and would not economically stack up - compared to providing a shuttle service backwards and forwards and upgrading the existing station".

However, Mr Payne said that study was "done some years ago" and the idea needed to be revisited. 

Richard McGuckin, head of growth and economic development at Stockton Council, said: "The experience of arriving on that platform is pretty grim at the moment but if it has the facilities and connectivity, a shuttle bus or whatever that might be, it could be helped as both an employment site and one for passenger. 

"That's something that Stobart, as the operator of the airport, is looking at."