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Sunderland railway station.


Big Jeff said:
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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Disagree. The metrocentre line is a good line, stops at every station all the way down to Hartlepool I believe??

intu are already struggling real bad who have Metrocentre, Eldon Square, and alot of shopping centres throughout the country, Govt will want to keep that line running.
 
EDGE said:
Bit early for me. What a shame it couldn't run more frequently.
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It is. A couple more a day taken from the Edinburgh route.

I tried to book it a few year ago to get to Kings Cross from Sunderland and it was showing £150 one way. If you broke it into two separate journeys it was summat like £3.00 for the Sunderland to Newcastle bit and £50 for the Newcastle to Kings Cross bit. Exactly the same journey and one three times more expensive than the other.
 
David M said:
Bar the really big stations, they're ran by a Train Operating Company (TOC) and I think it's Northern Railway in Sunderland's case. They will be staffed still as they're needed but in a more customer service / experience role. The problem with the proposals are customers will lose that experienced person that knows all the ins and outs of ticketing and it's not being maintained unless you go to one of the stations where ticket offices are remaining open.

Ticket machines will still be there but you can't buy all types of ticket from these.
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Whenever I go in after the match there is more security (bouncers) than Network rail or Northern employees.

Always seems very OTT
 
Ivor Biggun said:
It is. A couple more a day taken from the Edinburgh route.

I tried to book it a few year ago to get to Kings Cross from Sunderland and it was showing £150 one way. If you broke it into two separate journeys it was summat like £3.00 for the Sunderland to Newcastle bit and £50 for the Newcastle to Kings Cross bit. Exactly the same journey and one three times more expensive than the other.
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Noticed the same. Book directly from Newcastle and buy a metro ticket from Sunderland.
 
Ivor Biggun said:
The trade off of getting the metro was to reduce train services from Sunderland.
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I’m not sure that was ever made explicit - and, if it was, why should a city the size of Sunderland (with the number of council tax payers that it has…which funds the ‘local’ public transport authority (Nexus) have to choose between a local light rail network and national connections?

Sunderland should have more of both.

They are essential for economic development.

Sunderland should be added to the next TPE franchise, as an absolute minimum. (As well as Hartlepool and Middelsbrough).
 
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coyneeee said:
Disagree. The metrocentre line is a good line, stops at every station all the way down to Hartlepool I believe??

intu are already struggling real bad who have Metrocentre, Eldon Square, and alot of shopping centres throughout the country, Govt will want to keep that line running.
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Intu went bust 3 years ago, all the shopping centres were taken over by various other conglomerates and investment partners.

The Metrocentre line is very important as it’s the Tyne Valley line and part of the diversion for lner to Edinburgh (via Carlisle) when the line is closed north of Morpeth for its annual maintenance.

Great fun when you get to drive up that line in an azuma
 
Big Jeff said:
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.
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Grand Central will continue running as it's a open access operator imo.

Other than that, and some will disagree, having all the mainline trains only serving Newcastle is the best way forward as it means you'll get better loads. Slow down mainline trains to serve everywhere then they're not competitive anymore.
 
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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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They extended the Newcastle to Liverpools to start from Sunderland (don't think it was every one) mid or late 90s I think. I remember getting one down to a Uni open day in Manchester in 1999.

It was time the unit would have been idle in the bays at Newcastle anyway, and ran in the place of a Northern Spirit service which in those days went to Metrocentre or terminated at Newcastle anyway.

Not sure if it started before privatisation but I've a feeling it was a bit of post privatisation innovation by Northern Spirit. TPE and Northern was one franchise in those days before being split out and TPE operated by First and Northern initially by Arriva.
 
Zimba said:
Grand Central will continue running as it's a open access operator imo.

Other than that, and some will disagree, having all the mainline trains only serving Newcastle is the best way forward as it means you'll get better loads. Slow down mainline trains to serve everywhere then they're not competitive anymore.
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What's the point in having a fast first class service to London if you then have to get off and trundle back to Sunderland on the local trains. Three hours from London and then hanging about to get back to Sunderland prob looking at an hour. We need a direct rail link to Durham not Newcastle. At least then if you were going to London would not be going in the wrong direction. The Durham coastline needs upgrading too and Leamside reopened. Would free up capacity on the ecml.
 
mackem35 said:
What's the point in having a fast first class service to London if you then have to get off and trundle back to Sunderland on the local trains. Three hours from London and then hanging about to get back to Sunderland prob looking at an hour. We need a direct rail link to Durham not Newcastle. At least then if you were going to London would not be going in the wrong direction. The Durham coastline needs upgrading too and Leamside reopened. Would free up capacity on the ecml.
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Personally if we're going this route then you'd be better upgrading the Durham Coast Line and having something like:

1 TPH - Newcastle - Sunderland - Hartlepool - Middlesbrough - Northallerton - York - Leeds - Huddersfield - Manchester

2 TPH - Newcastle - Heworth - Sunderland - (Hendon) - Seaham - Hordon - Hartlepool - Middlesbrough - Thornaby - Eaglescliffe - Yarm - Northallerton - Thirsk - York

If the timings were competitive say 90mph min then it wouldn't take much longer and York has a much better service. Heading to Durham is still heading in the wrong direction and the service is generally poor there. You'd need a bridge from Hartlepool to the West of Boro though to stop the doubling back though mind.
 
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