Dunston is a railway station on the Tyne Valley Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated west of Newcastle, serves the suburb of Dunston, Gateshead in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...

, England. It is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and managed by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

History

The station opened in January 1909, on a section of line built by the North Eastern Railway between 1893 and 1909. It linked the lines over the newly commissioned

King Edward VII Bridge The King Edward VII Bridge is a railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, in North East England. It is a Grade II listed structure. The King Edward VII bridge has been described as “Britain’s last ...

with the original

Newcastle and Carlisle Railway The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between ...

freight route to Redheugh and Dunston Coal Staiths, dating back to 1837. The station was originally known as ''Dunston-on-Tyne'', and served as the terminus of a shuttle service from

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. As a result of the

General Strike of 1926 The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governmen ...

, the service ended and the station was closed in May 1926, briefly being brought back into use for special evacuation trains during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Following the closure of

Scotswood Bridge Scotswood Bridge is one of the main bridges crossing the River Tyne in North East England. It links the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank of the river with the MetroCentre (shopping centre), MetroCentre and Blaydon in Gateshead ...

in October 1982, trains were re-routed across the

and through Dunston. The station was re-opened as ''Dunston'' by British Rail in October 1984. Initially, most services on the Tyne Valley Line called at the station. However, services were later reduced due to low passenger numbers, particularly following the opening of MetroCentre in August 1987. The timetable has though been improved by the current operator (since 2013) and is now comparable to many other stations on the line.

Facilities

The station has a single island platform, which has a ticket machine (which accepts card or

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung ...

only), seating, waiting shelter, next train audio display and an emergency help point. There is step-free access to the platform, which is accessed by ramp. There is cycle storage at the station. Dunston is part of the Northern Trains

penalty fare A penalty fare, standard fare, or fixed penalty notice is a special, usually higher, fare charged because a passenger using public transport did not comply with the normal ticket purchasing rules. It should not be confused with an unpaid fares n ...

network, meaning that a valid ticket or promise to pay notice is required prior to boarding the train.

Services

As of the December 2021 timetable change, there is an hourly service between and , with additional trains at peak times. On Sunday, there is an hourly service between Newcastle and . Most trains extend to or via . All services are operated by

. Rolling stock used: Class 156 ''Super Sprinter'' and Class 158 ''Express Sprinter''

References

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Railway stations in Tyne and Wear DfT Category F2 stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1909 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1918 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1919 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1926 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1984 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Northern franchise railway stations