TEES VALLEY RAIL STATEMENT December 2016 GENERAL INTRODUCTION and BACKGROUND
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TEES VALLEY RAIL STATEMENT December 2016 GENERAL INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Here in the Tees Valley, we have ambitious plans to build on our world-class expertise and critical mass sectors such as chemicals, energy, advanced manufacturing (particularly oil and gas, metals and automotive) and logistics, with growing capability in new industries - biologics, subsea, digital/creative and the low carbon economy. Our updated Strategic Economic Plan sets out how we will achieve transformational growth of 25,000 new jobs, 23,000 new homes and a £1 billion increase in GVA. The Tees Valley economy, including all of our growth sectors, needs effective and reliable multi-modal transport connections, with rail playing a critical role in delivering this for both passengers and freight. HARTLEPOOL Population: 92,500 Jobs: 33,100 Businesses: 2,215 STOCKTON-ON-TEES Population: 194,800 REDCAR & CLEVELAND Jobs: 90,400 Population: 135,300 Businesses: 5,260 Jobs: 48,200 Businesses: 3,055 DARLINGTON Population: 105,400 Jobs: 55,600 MIDDLESBROUGH Businesses: 3,020 Population: 139,500 Jobs: 66,100 Businesses: 2,955 LEGEND Road Network Stations Durham Tees Valley Airport Motorway Urban Centres Rail Line Teesport 01 Tees Valley Combined Authority - Tees Valley Rail Statement December 2016 As the maps above and below help to indicate, the rail network in the Tees Valley plays a key role in linking our main centres of economic activity and also providing crucial connectivity to other parts of the country. Passenger rail has continued to show significant growth in recent years, and is key to providing good public transport access between the main economic/retail centres, the port, airport and many of our major employment and regeneration sites. Freight movements by rail have also continued to increase as epitomised by the growth in container traffic into and out of Teesport. On the face of it, whilst the rail network is fairly extensive, it is still based, to a large extent, on historic patterns of development and travel demand and it doesn’t necessarily fully meet the needs of the modern day Tees Valley economy. Service levels, quality and connections are also not up to a sufficient standard to fully support our Strategic Economic Plan. The Tees Valley rail strategy, which has been agreed and well established for some time, is therefore a combination of priorities on both the national and local rail networks. 02 Tees Valley Combined Authority - Tees Valley Rail Statement December 2016 NATIONAL RAIL These priorities include enhanced strategic rail benefit the Tees Valley economy by £400 million. connectivity and improvements through the long In addition further research has shown that there distance franchises which serve the Tees Valley is a clear business case for improved services at (East Coast, Cross-Country and Transpennine, Darlington to be supplemented by the introduction with Northern Powerhouse Rail and High Speed of new direct services between Middlesbrough Rail in the longer term), wider electrification of and London. It is therefore very welcome that the the network with Northallerton to Middlesbrough/ Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) franchise, which Teesport the immediate priority, upgraded rolling began operation in March 2015, now contains firm stock for local rail (to replace the life-expired commitments to improve services to Darlington ‘Pacer’ fleet), local timetable, journey time and and also to introduce new direct services to connectivity enhancements and further capacity Middlesbrough. These have now been approved for freight growth (eg containers from Teesport). by the Office of Road and Rail. Hartlepool and Eaglescliffe continue to benefit from the direct Our links to London and Scotland are critical links to London provided by Grand Central so for business and leisure travel so an enhanced the 10 year contract extension of this Open East Coast service at Darlington which provides Access contract up to 2025 was also welcome. improved journey times and service reliability It is important that these links are retained and is fundamental. The importance of this service enhanced and that timetables are closely planned is highlighted by recent research which showed with the new VTEC services to offer optimum that existing East Coast services at Darlington provision for Tees Valley passengers. 03 Tees Valley Combined Authority - Tees Valley Rail Statement December 2016 In terms of East-West connectivity, vital strategic the area. In particular, there are strong economic, links are provided by the Transpennine franchise social and cultural links between Tees Valley and from both Darlington and Middlesbrough (plus Leeds. The link to Manchester Airport is critical in Thornaby and Yarm) to York, Leeds, Manchester that it is the only direct link between the area and and Manchester Airport, in particular. The one of the country’s major international airports. Tees Valley rail strategy is absolutely clear, and this position was outlined through various Connectivity to the Midlands and beyond to the Government/franchise consultations, that this South West, as well as to Yorkshire as outlined franchise is long-distance in nature and it is above, is also important and is currently provided important for it to be retained as such. Again it by CrossCountry services. These links should be was therefore very welcome when direct, fast retained in terms of their current quantum but links from both Darlington and Middlesbrough journey times should be improved significantly to these key destinations were retained in the as, for example, rail journey times between the new Transpennine franchise, awarded on 1st Tees Valley and the Midlands are not particularly April 2016, along with commitments for service competitive with those by car. Unlike other key improvements, new rolling stock and reduced franchises that serve the Tees Valley which have journey times. The economic linkages between been renewed recently, the CrossCountry franchise Tees Valley and the West Yorkshire and Manchester is not due to be re-tendered until 2019 which is at Cities are important to the economic vitality of the end of the Government’s franchise programme. 04 Tees Valley Combined Authority - Tees Valley Rail Statement December 2016 In the longer term, Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) and That is why a major upgrade to High Speed Rail (HS2) will play a critical role in further Darlington Station, which will provide enhancing strategic rail connectivity to the Tees Valley. further platform and track capacity, a NPR, which is the centre-piece of Transport for the significantly enhanced station building North’s rail strategy, will potentially further transform including improved retail and commercial links to the key economic powerhouses of Leeds and opportunities as well as much improved Manchester, as well as to Manchester Airport, by accessibility and integration, is one of the delivering further significant journey time reductions and two key strategic rail priorities for the Tees improving journey quality across the Pennines. HS2, which Valley Combined Authority. is the Government’s main national long-term rail priority, will improve connectivity to London and Scotland and will Given its strategic location on the ECML, have a particular transformational impact on links to the Darlington Station is a major rail gateway Midlands by drastically reducing journey times by rail. It for the Tees Valley but it is not currently is therefore vital that the Tees Valley is directly served by fulfilling its potential due to capacity both these transformational high speed rail services in the issues and lack of appropriate facilities. future. This adversely impacts on both mainline services and those local services which either terminate or cross the mainline at Darlington. A strong business case has therefore been developed to create a re-modelled Darlington Station Growth Hub which will deliver the required infrastructure improvements to make Darlington fully NPR and HS2 ready, at the For all this to work there is a pressing need for major same time as overcoming the immediate investment in additional capacity on the East Coast capacity constraints. The proposal Mainline north of York to allow for the combined demands envisages around £100m of public and of NPR, HS2, ‘classic’ rail and freight to be met in full. private investment to recast the station at Darlington Station is a particular pinch-point on this the heart of the town. The wider station section of the strategic rail network which is now causing masterplan includes up to 30,000 sq m of operational constraints for long distance services as well new business space and up to 1,500 new as for local passenger and freight services which cross or homes with the station connecting better terminate here. The lack of capacity is compounded when to the Central Park Enterprise Zone, the further service enhancements are introduced and it will historic Market Hall area and other public severely restrict the impact of NPR and HS2 which will spaces in Darlington, creating over 3,000 have a negative effect on the Tees Valley economy. direct and indirect jobs. 05 Tees Valley Combined Authority - Tees Valley Rail Statement December 2016 As part of its East Coast Route Network Study the North of England. Approvals and funding during 2015/16, Network Rail has now identified are already in place for the Northern Gateway Darlington and one of the priority locations for Container Terminal expansion at Teesport which investment to increase capacity on the ECML. will more than double the container capacity to Tees Valley Combined Authority welcomes this 1.1 million TEU and create up to 4,000 direct and and believes a major upgrade at Darlington indirect jobs. The provision of W12 clearance on should be delivered in the short-term to address this route will also help to alleviate capacity issues some immediate capacity and operational issues at Darlington, thus further boosting the business but also as an ‘early win’ in a wider package case for our other main priority.