Call for TransPennine Trains to stop at Eaglescliffe

For years people have asked for the Transpennine train to stop at Eaglescliffe rather than us having to go to Yarm to catch it. Now that government is consulting on the next franchise for the route we have asked for this stop to be included. The full text of our submission is as follows:

To Northern TPE Consultation Co-ordinator
4/15 Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 4DR

30^th June 2014

Open consultation: Future of Northern and TransPennine Express rail franchises

This response is primarily under Consultation Question OTH1 (Other Views) but touches on DTD1 & DTD2 (door to door experience) and NTSR1 (improving Northern connections).

Our proposal is that TransPennine Northern services to and from Middlesbrough stop additionally at Eaglescliffe.

We see the following advantages for the public:

1. Eaglescliffe Station is some 200 metres from bus stops on Yarm Road, which are currently served by journeys between Stockton and Yarm town centres - every 10 minutes during most of the daytime on weekdays, hourly every evening and half-hourly in the daytime on Sundays. From the centre of Yarm and the east side of Eaglescliffe to access Trans-Pennine by public transport involves either changing buses in Stockton High Street (to use Thornaby Station) or (for most of the timetable) using a bus stop in an estate on the outskirts of Yarm with a less-than obvious route from Yarm Station.
2. Eaglescliffe Station could easily accommodate Trans Pennine trains physically, as the platforms have been maintained at a length to accommodate East Coast Main Line diversions and are used daily by the Open-Access Grand Central expresses between Sunderland and London (King's Cross).
3. Eaglescliffe Station now has a booking office (operated by Chester-le-Track) in co-operation with Northern Rail. Yarm Station is unmanned.
4. In co-operation with Northern Rail, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is about to embark on improved waiting facilities and an extension to the car park at Eaglescliffe Station.
5. The access to Eaglescliffe Station is along Station Road, which has a public house, a One-Stop Shop "open all hours" and a cash machine, which, supplemented by a restaurant and other businesses, offer facilities to passengers.
6. A disincentive to rail travel from Eaglescliffe to York and points south (especially London) is that, if passengers arrive back in the Tees Valley in the evening (unless they can catch the two Grand Central trains through to Eaglescliffe), there is only an hourly connection at Darlington, so they can face waiting there a long time. The Trans-Pennine stopping at Eaglescliffe would provide further connectivity for people for whom that is a convenient station.

Since the Trans-Pennine service to and from Middlesbrough was introduced in the mid 1990's by British Rail we have had requests from residents for a stop at Eaglescliffe. When BR were planning the service, the footfall at Eaglescliffe was at its nadir, but it is once again becoming a popular station[1].

These comments are submitted by:

Councillor Alan Lewis, 12 Marion Avenue, Eaglescliffe, STOCKTON-ON-TEES, TS16 0LJ, tel: 01642 748910, e-mail: alan.lewis@stockton.gov.uk, who has represented Eaglescliffe Ward on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council since 2007 and has been a parish councillor on Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe Council since 2006.

Councillor Maureen Rigg, 4 Monmouth Drive, Eaglescliffe, STOCKTON-ON-TEES, TS16 9HU, tel: 01642 785689, e-mail: maureen.rigg@stockton.gov.uk, who has represented Eaglescliffe Ward (formerly Egglescliffe Ward on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council since 1999, has been a parish councillor on Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe Council since 1993 and chairs the Borough's Western Area Locality Forum.

Councillor John Fletcher, 3 Hoylake Way, Eaglescliffe, STOCKTON-ON-TEES, TS16 9EU, who represented Eaglescliffe Ward (formerly Egglescliffe Ward) on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council from 1987 to 2011, has been a parish councillor on Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe Council since 1983 (currently Vice-chairman) and chairs Stockton-on-Tees Borough Public Transport Users Forum.

All these comments are in a personal capacity and not on behalf of their councils or organisations.