Why Metro now?

South East Northumberland Rail Users Group (SENRUG) and various local authorities have been campaigning for ten years or more for the AB&T to be re-opened.  The initial plan has been abandoned, and replaced by SENRUG’s three phase plan (which actually has four phases) which puts services for Blyth and Seaton Valley at the bottom of the list. Neither SENRUG nor any of the local authorities have delivered any of the phases of this plan, nor even a programme for delivering in a timely fashion any of the phases of the plan.

Instead people are asked to wait, and to wait again. Northumberland County Council’s involvement appears to be more of a job creation scheme for railway consultants than a realistic plan of campaign. NCC may have made the re-opening of the AB&T a priority, but it’s a priority with no funding and no timescale. It’s a wish, and as we all know, if wishes were horses beggars would ride to work.

It’s not as if there haven’t been siren voices warning about the delays and lack of activity. A report written for Blyth Valley Borough Council in 2005 criticized Northumberland County Council’s approach, of insisting on heavy rail as the solution for the AB&T, as ‘putting all its eggs in one basket’. Six years on, with no prospect of passenger services returning  to Blyth or the Seaton Valley, you can get the point.

The adoption by Metro of hybrid power system rolling stock, as envisaged by Blyth Valley Borough Council back in 2005, is a forward looking proposal that would enable more local rail services to be developed across Northumberland and Durham with ticketing integrated across the network in a way that Northern Rail currently fails to do. In terms of the future of the railway network, it’s an option that can enable the network to grow, and leave open the use of the network for freight and passenger diversions as well as passenger transport.