[TrainBrain185]

For those of this Forum who has local knowledge of the long mothballed Leamside branch line, there has been bridge repairs where the line crosses over the A1M to the east of Durham City.
It would be nice to see this branch re-opened sooner rather than the later. At least some positive use could be an introduction of a Metro Light Rail Extension or even Northern Rail services to areas of Washington, Penshaw and Fence Houses??

[Darandio]

Further to this, a load of sleepers have been delivered to Tursdale and have been placed alongside the Leamside, around 1/2 mile from the junction so surely cannot be for the main line.

[TrainBrain185]

Originally Posted by Darandio

Further to this, a load of sleepers have been delivered to Tursdale and have been placed alongside the Leamside, around 1/2 mile from the junction so surely cannot be for the main line.

If you go to Google Maps and home in really close on the Leamside Branch, you will be able to observe how bad it is through lack of basic upkeep and maintenance. Untreated foliage growth has now taken over many parts of it, so much that it is difficult to follow on Google. Its going to take a lot of investment by someone to bring it back to operational order. I keeping reading items of news that it "will" re-open but its years away.....

[spoony]

Would love to see it reopened and a metro loop brought into it connecting Pelaw to Durham, with the South Hylton line joining it providing a direct Sunderland - Durham service. Never gonna happen though.

[142094]

A town as big as Washington needs a railway station. Instead of sending more freight via the Durham Coast line, this should be reopened with a link to Tyne Dock for all freight, and to remove some from the ECML, then an hourly service Newcastle - Washington - MIddlesbrough should be brought in as well.

[DaveNewcastle]

As the potential for re-opening the Leamside line crops up on here quite regularly, I wonder if it would be helpful to read NR's RUS (Rail Utilisation Strategy) for the ECML and what its conculsions are for this line:

Gap 8 - Network Flexibility
Analysis
A standard hourly pattern for the London services would allow a regular pattern of passenger and freight services on this section. However, to have an even spread of services would require significant infrastructure investment, such as reopening the Leamside route, to provide robust freight paths with reasonable journey times, but the level of benefit would be limited to journeys both joining and alighting at or between York and Newcastle.

The reinstatement of the former Leamside Line would require major capital expenditure, and it is very unlikely that this could be justified with network flexibility benefits alone.

Conclusion and/or recommendation
It is recommended that opportunities and requirements for using this diversionary route are examined by the 7-Day Railway workstream, taking into account planned headway improvements between Hartlepool and Dawdon, and the IEP programme. It should also confirm the level of benefits that could contribute to the Leamside reinstatement costs.

A longer term scenario
Running additional passenger services north of Northallerton by 2036 would probably require enhancement and increased
use of the parallel route via Eaglescliffe, Stockton and Ferryhill; and reinstatement of the Leamside route (Ferryhill – Washington – Pelaw Junction) might be beneficial to provide sufficient overall capacity between Ferryhill and Newcastle.

Possible requirements after 2019:
Re-instatement of the Leamside route (Ferryhill – Washington – Pelaw Junction).

So we shouldn't expect to see any developments here within the next 10 years.