Of course the downside to this is the increased congestion at King Edward Junction, and the associated conflicts with the East Coast Main Line. There’s also the issue that the West End of Newcastle lost a rail corridor that could perhaps have been developed more recently.
It seems to me to be something of a shame that (in a continuation of what could be seen as past mistakes) the current short stay car park which occupies the old bay platforms to the West of the main Newcastle Central Station range is to be redeveloped once more, this time for commercial use and improved access to the Stephenson Quarter (which would always be better provided-for by an extension of the station footbridge and a completely new South side entrance and exit).
If they ever were needed again for Railway operations, though, it’d be that much more tricky and expensive to bring them back into use, and the revenues generated in the meantime presumably won’t, of course, have gone into any pot that could then be used for infrastructure works.
As an indication of how things are in the West End, this is a Google Streetview image of William Armstrong Drive:
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The old alignment to the Scotswood Bridge runs behind the buildings on the right. All the cars in the picture are having to park on the road because the car parks for the buildings are full - and knowing Google SV, this picture will have been taken before 8am. During the day (in normal times), it’s usually bumper to bumper, end to end.
A Scotswood crossing could still be relevant, then, but would ideally be at less of an oblique angle so that there might be a triangular junction on the Gateshead side, permitting services to head West to Hexham, or return East via MetroCentre to create a South bank loop.
If (and it’s a big if, as I think the idea is practically questionable) a line was also reinstated to Consett, then an appropriately aligned Scotswood crossing and reinstated bays at Newcastle Central could again provide additional capacity and reduce conflicts, I’d have thought.