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Sunderland railway station.

PhilY said:
No, I don’t think so.

Not until the North End is developed (the old Littlewoods building) which will be years off.

It’s a damn shame because the lack of platform capacity will limited economic development of the city centre. We should have direct connections to other major Northern cities.

Nexus disagree though and prefer to channel Sunderland traffic through NCL.
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It's a joke going to London where the Grand Central has a very short window between Metro trains to arrive, get passengers on with luggage and get out again. Really poor for the old or disabled.

If a 3rd platform was open, the Grand Central could sit there ready for cleaning after arriving from London, with lots of time for passengers to board before it's departure for London.
 

Didn't a Sunderland to Manchester train run at one time? Sure I got one when I was younger.Very early 90's maybe?
 
Dreadnought said:
I'm certain that the new build was going to include a ticket office but that must be in some doubt now.

Btw, a lad I know who worked on the site told me a while ago that Grand Central was definitely going to have an office in the new station.
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That could simply be a traincrew messroom.
 
Skylon said:
Didn't a Sunderland to Manchester train run at one time? Sure I got one when I was younger.Very early 90's maybe?
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Im sure there was carlisle and liverpool aswell, hopefully if platforms 3 and 4 are reopened, we will see more services using Sunderland but I very much doubt it that would happen
 
Beau Peep said:
I think they're just happy to channel would-be Sunderland traffic to Newcastle, and leave it at that.
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That’s exactly it. We, the people of Sunderland, should not accept it.
Bladecat said:
It's a joke going to London where the Grand Central has a very short window between Metro trains to arrive, get passengers on with luggage and get out again. Really poor for the old or disabled.

If a 3rd platform was open, the Grand Central could sit there ready for cleaning after arriving from London, with lots of time for passengers to board before it's departure for London.
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100% this.

But Nexus don’t want to do anything to support GC - they make minimal revenue from them so would rather passengers use the Metro.
 
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andysafc85 said:
Bollocks

You should always have a face to face option incase there are online problems or people with learning difficulties/elderly who can’t use smartphone/online options.

Same goes with the ticket office at the SOL, banks, etc.
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Agree. I travel a lot by train, many times the ticket machine is tempermental or not working at all (the touch screen can be particularly problematic), and there is only the one. I experienced this at Sunderland and the guard on Grand Central was helpful, she didn't just print my tickets for that train but also the ones for the connecting and return trains. Many a time I have experienced problems and had to go to the ticket office. OK, there may be some smaller stations that do not have many people using the ticket office but couldn't they consider combining this with a shop? West Boldon Post Office is an example.
 
Things will continue to change. E tickets will become the norm and there will be huge reductions in manpower right across the railways.

Routes that do not make a profit will get scrapped.

My personal view is ultimately traffic will run to Newcastle not Sunderland and passengers wanting to go onwards will need to use the metro
 
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Big Jeff said:
Things will continue to change. E tickets will become the norm and there will be huge reductions in manpower right across the railways.

Routes that do not make a profit will get scrapped.

My personal view is ultimately traffic will run to Newcastle not Sunderland and passengers wanting to go onwards will need to use the metro
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Would much rather jump in the car or get a taxi to Durham than get the metro to newcastle if going to London (if grand Central not an option). Crazy we don't have a direct connection between Durham and Sunderland. So are you suggesting we should all go to Newcastle to get to Durham, won't happen - even the slow bus to Durham is quicker than doing that.
 
Big Jeff said:
Things will continue to change. E tickets will become the norm and there will be huge reductions in manpower right across the railways.

Routes that do not make a profit will get scrapped.

My personal view is ultimately traffic will run to Newcastle not Sunderland and passengers wanting to go onwards will need to use the metro
Click to expand...
All you've done here is state what already happens...

If the government are serious about getting people off the road & to an extent off short haul domestic flights then rail services need to run from more regional stations to more regional stations
 
Gronkowski said:
All you've done here is state what already happens...

If the government are serious about getting people off the road & to an extent off short haul domestic flights then rail services need to run from more regional stations to more regional stations
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I agree but I can’t see it happening.
 
PhilY said:
No, I don’t think so.

Not until the North End is developed (the old Littlewoods building) which will be years off.

It’s a damn shame because the lack of platform capacity will limited economic development of the city centre. We should have direct connections to other major Northern cities.

Nexus disagree though and prefer to channel Sunderland traffic through NCL.
Click to expand...

The trade off of getting the metro was to reduce train services from Sunderland.
 
mackem35 said:
Would much rather jump in the car or get a taxi to Durham than get the metro to newcastle if going to London (if grand Central not an option). Crazy we don't have a direct connection between Durham and Sunderland. So are you suggesting we should all go to Newcastle to get to Durham, won't happen - even the slow bus to Durham is quicker than doing that.
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No not suggesting that I am meaning travel from say London to the North East.

Newcastle will become the main/ only mainline route.

Just my personal opinion.
 
mackem35 said:
Would much rather jump in the car or get a taxi to Durham than get the metro to newcastle if going to London (if grand Central not an option). Crazy we don't have a direct connection between Durham and Sunderland. So are you suggesting we should all go to Newcastle to get to Durham, won't happen - even the slow bus to Durham is quicker than doing that.
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There is one direct train between Sunderland and Durham every weekday. Takes 30 minutes..
 
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