Middlesbrough north-south station

[A S Leib]

What would the main barriers be to splitting off from the Northallerton – Eaglescliffe line, tunnelling under Middlesbrough and the Tees, and joining the Durham Coast line north of Billingham, with a north-south platform serving Middlesbrough? Heading due north from Middlesbrough station, it's only 3.5 miles to the Durham Coast line, but by rail it's 12 miles and 20+ minutes. Having a line under Middlesbrough would enable it, Hartlepool and Sunderland to be served by the same services.

Stockton and Billingham wouldn't lose out, as they currently only have 1 tph each way and that would be supplemented rather than replaced (and the same would apply for the stopping Newcastle service at Thornaby, but maybe not the semi-fast 1tp2h). Eaglescliffe might lose its Grand Central services if they were able to go via Middlesbrough instead though, and I suspect Redcar would prefer to keep its Manchester services rather than Hartlepool and Sunderland getting them.

The question I should probably have started with, on the other hand, is why it takes a quarter of an hour to get from Billingham to Middlesbrough to begin with, and if there's any way that bit could be accelerated (electrification?).

 

[Darandio]

What would the main barriers be to splitting off from the Northallerton – Eaglescliffe line, tunnelling under Middlesbrough and the Tees, and joining the Durham Coast line north of Billingham, with a north-south platform serving Middlesbrough?

The hundreds of millions (maybe into the billions?) of pounds that it would cost for very little benefit?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Oct 2024 ==

The question I should probably have started with, on the other hand, is why it takes a quarter of an hour to get from Billingham to Middlesbrough to begin with, and if there's any way that bit could be accelerated (electrification?).

It's a slow meander through Thornaby, Bowesfield, Stockton, Norton Jcn, Belasis etc and there isn't really any feasible way to increase linespeed in any of these locations. Electrification might allow stock with higher acceleration but you would probably be lucky to gain a minute.

 

[harz99]

Not sure what you are trying to achieve, but GC surel could already serve Middlesbrough by using existing tracks and simply reversing there?

 

[A S Leib]

Not sure what you are trying to achieve

Faster Middlesbrough – Hartlepool, Sunderland and Newcastle journey times.

but GC surel could already serve Middlesbrough by using existing tracks and simply reversing there?

That would add on ~25 minutes (but that would be ~15 minutes reversing at Thornaby and getting people to change onto one of 3 tph from there; is reversing at Thornaby possible?).

 

[30907]

Faster Middlesbrough – Hartlepool, Sunderland and Newcastle journey times.

That would add on ~25 minutes (but that would be ~15 minutes reversing at Thornaby and getting people to change onto one of 3 tph from there; is reversing at Thornaby possible?).

I make it 16min plus time to change ends, less time for 2x Thornaby stops, so <20min.
However, GC aren't going to want to do that - they can suggest customers from the South change at Eaglescliffe, but in practice I suspect the car wins (for Stockton too). They won't be bothered about Middlesbrough-Sunderland traffic.

 

[TUC]

Faster Middlesbrough – Hartlepool, Sunderland and Newcastle journey times.

Why, when faster Middlesbrough-Newcastle services could be achieved by a limited stop Middlesbrough-Darlington-Newcastle service?

 

[A S Leib]

Why, when faster Middlesbrough-Newcastle services could be achieved by a limited stop Middlesbrough-Darlington-Newcastle service?

That doesn't help with Middlesbrough – Hartlepool / Sunderland journeys.

If that option were taken, which rolling stock would be best? I thought Northern wanted to have more frequent Darlington – Newcastle services at one point but had the issue of slowing down LNER / CrossCountry services too much (and at the other end, just try to link it up to the Saltburn – Darlington service which doesn't go to Bishop Auckland?).