This. One hundred percent, it's all well and good to talk about adding the leamside into the Tyne and Wear network, but we need a why. The line isn't a panacea, you can't solve the metro problems, and use it as a heavy freight line, and send a new Newcastle - Middlesbrough express down there, as patching would be a nightmare. A 50mph stopping service, stopping every mile or so, is going to cause havoc with any freight or fast-ish passenger, especially if we aim for a 10 minute frequency.
There is a need for more paths on the northern ECML, so let's start with this. Every hour, there are 6 LDHS services between Newcastle and Darlington, each with different stopping patterns. Northern couldn't path their new Newcastle - Teeside "express" service down the Durham line, there's a lot of freight going to Tyne Dock, Millerhill and Oxwellmains, and the containers to Grangemouth/Mossend. Add in any future plans to divert freight via the ECML (which I am yet to see, but lets not discount it) or any further HS2 services to Newcastle and that's a lot to path.
All of these are trying to fit through the 20 mile double track railway between Ferryhill and Newcastle. Yes, some could and indeed have been pathed through the Durham Coast, but it's slow, packed with metro, and at the end of the day, at some point there's probably going to be a desire to put more passenger services down there. Also, I'm not sure about RA, but I'm assuming it's probably lower. What we have is a bottleneck to the south of Newcastle. It's almost as if we could use a second, slower line to take some of the slack off, to path freight down, to free up some paths, to send maybe even a couple of new passenger services if it links anywhere of decent size.
This is what the Leamside line could be used for, and while I'm not sold on it yet, it's looking increasingly likely that at some point, it's probably necessary.
So we can send freight that way, great. It's there in extremis as a diversion, great. Passenger services though?
The problem with the metro is we assume both that Nexus wants it, and can serve it. It's a long way to Durham, any trains going through the core would need to come at the expense of frequency elsewhere, and at the end of the day, they probably don't have the spare trains. Metro isn't the answer to this problem, they do a good job but adding another southerly destination is going to come at the cost of South Shields or Sunderland. That's the way of the world.
Leamside goes through a couple of big places. Washington, Penshaw and a new Durham East Parkway station would probably all attract large numbers of passengers, with a 30 minute frequency to Newcastle, and decent sized trains, it could be quite a nice earner for whoever takes over Northern. As well as that, Ferryhill, Chilton Moor and Bowburn would not be the smallest places in the world to have stations. You could even extend the metro from South Hylton to an interchange at Penshaw, linking with Sunderland.
The Leamside line would be about 25 miles each way to Ferryhill. Add in five stations, and with 75 mph track, you're looking at just over an hour shuttle back and forth. Probably just too much for two units, but fine with three. But that gives you an odd timetable, and if we're looking for commuters, then an even timetable is going to be far more attractive, even at 2tph.
But, and this is a big but, Newcastle is currently trying to open another 25 mile line, through prime commuter territory. Add them both up, and you're looking at about 50 miles, with 10 or so station stops between Newbiggin (alternatively Ashington or Blyth) and Ferryhill (or Durham East Parkway). With 2tph, and an average speed of somewhere about 50mph, that makes 6 units nicely. It would be a new commuter line, opening up regeneration and transport links across large population centres, previously long or circuitous routes, and places with previously poor public transport.
With 6 units of four cars, and let's say 1bn quid at the extreme end, you get decent connectivity, a new freight line to improve capacity on the ECML, an improved transport offering in the North East, where it is poorer than most other cities in the UK, and a commitment to new Tory voters, all in one little package. It looks good for the environment, it looks better to placate voters concerned about spending money on getting from Birmingham to London more quickly, especially in a city which arguable will probably see the least benefit from HS2 for the time being. You could even string up some wires on the cheap.
This is the place of the Leamside line, connection with Ashington or not. It's not going to be a metro line. It might be a freight diversion route. And if you can path a couple of trains an hour each way into Newcastle across the bridges, then sending a new commuter train service stacks the bcr in favour. It can't be either freight or commuter rail, it needs to be both.
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