Middlesbrough

Network Rail has confirmed that their £2.7million refurbishment of Middlesbrough station will begin this spring, which will see the station roof and stonework repaired in a 13-month project. These works complement work led by Middlesbrough Council to commission a masterplan study for Middlesbrough station which will focus on transport connectivity and the regeneration of the surrounding area. Lisa McGuinness, Commercial Scheme Sponsor for Network Rail, said: “Lots of work has happened behind the scenes to get the specialist contractor in place to work on this Grade II listed building. We will continue to work with TransPennine Express and Middlesbrough Council to minimise the disruption caused by our improvement work.” 

Horden/Peterlee

Durham County Council has received  a grant offer from the North East LEP and now awaits only a decision from the New Stations fund which is promised for “Spring”. Meanwhile Network Rail contractors have started ground investigations from around the site and once their reports are available work can continue to shape up the design etc for this proposed new station.

The first Open Meeting of Coastliners’ 2017-2018 year will take place at 7.15pm on Thursday 27th April 2017 in the Reading Room of The Athenaeum Club, Church Street, Hartlepool. We will be welcome to use the bar from 6.30pm until soon after 10.30pm.

Coastliners have of late been much concerned with various aspects of the potential setting-up of a Durham Coast Community Rail Partnership (CRP): whether to proceed with such a project; the procedures involved in setting-up a CRP and the workload involved in doing so.

The main business of this meeting will be to address these questions . To this end we will have two distinguished guests: Mr Brian Barnsley, Operations Manager, Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) and Mr Ian Davis, ACoRP Operations Officer for the North. We hope that Brian and Ian will provide us with the information which we need in order to decide whether to proceed and, crucially, how to go about setting up the CRP.

We hope you will join us on 27th April