South Hylton line question

[thenorthern]

Looking at the map I noticed that when the Tyne and Wear Metro joins the main line at Pelaw there is a marker to say that there is an ownership change. There is no such mark at Sunderland South Junction when the South Hylton line diverges off from the Durham Coast Line.

I was wondering how the South Hylton line works as in is the line owned by Tyne and Wear Metro or Network Rail? Also how does the signalling on the line work is it controlled by Tyne and Wear Metro or Network Rail? Also who maintains the line?

I know policing is provided by the British Transport Police rather than Northumbria Police, which is the case for most of the Metro.

 

[edwin_m]

I believe it is Network Rail owned and signalled. It certainly has four-aspect signalling, which is pretty unnecessary given the braking performance of the Metrocars which operate under two-aspect on most of the original Metro.

 

[swt_passenger]

I believe it is Network Rail owned and signalled. It certainly has four-aspect signalling, which is pretty unnecessary given the braking performance of the Metrocars which operate under two-aspect on most of the original Metro.

That’s confirmed as per the online sectional appendix. No ownership boundary shown. Signalling is controlled by the Tyneside ROC Sunderland workstation. AWS/TPWS is not fitted. Electrification is controlled by York ECO.

 

[Starmill]

I think it was actively specified in the way that it was to allow for the fact that, one day, trains, other than the metrocars, could use it.

 

[thenorthern]

I think it was actively specified in the way that it was to allow for the fact that, one day, trains, other than the metrocars, could use it.

Looking at the cab ride videos people have made the speed limits are in both MP/H and KP/H which given that the line Metro only used KP/H I think you might be right

 

[Trainz6013]

I think I remember reading somewhere that it is Network Rail owned, accompanied with a photo of the NMT HST at South Hylton

 

[thenorthern]

I think I remember reading somewhere that it is Network Rail owned, accompanied with a photo of the NMT HST at South Hylton

There are videos of the 950 at South Hylton, I am not sure the Measurement train would fit in the single line at South Hylton Station and then be able to reverse out on the other track. Someone will probably correct me on this.

 

[GraphitProjekt]

I think it was actively specified in the way that it was to allow for the fact that, one day, trains, other than the metrocars, could use it.

My understanding was that it would have been a lot of unnecessary complexity to have another ownership boundary just for a little branch. So it was a much better use of resources and cheaper in the long run to have it be owned and maintained by Network Rail since they were already required to get used to owning/operating 1.5kV DC on the rest of the line. It's much more likely that the line will actually join the metro again at its other end with regards to the Washington extension, in which case I could see them splitting off the whole branch to Nexus.

Electrification is controlled by York ECO.

Of course, York ECR's main job is the 25kV on ECML. But they also have a bit of 750V DC third rail on the Northern City Line, and also 750V DC OLE on the Sheffield tram-train line (Tinsley south to Parkgate). So quite unique that they get 4 different electrification standards.