Teesside Airport railway station is on the

Tees Valley line The Tees Valley Line is a rail route, in Northern England, following part of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway route of 1825. The line covers a distance of , and connects to via , and 14 other stations in the Teesdale. The sect ...

which runs between and via in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, England. The station is east of Darlington and is situated relatively close to

Teesside International Airport Teesside International Airport , previously Durham Tees Valley Airport, is an international airport located between Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees, Northern England. It is about south-west of Middlesbrough. The airport serves the North East, ...

, which owns the station, but not near enough to be considered as a viable means of travelling to the airport. It is managed by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT) ...

, which also operated the limited service calling at the station prior to its temporary closure in 2022. Teesside Airport is one of Britain's least-used railway stations, with an estimated 338 passenger journeys made during 2019/20. In both 2012/13 and 2013/14 it was the least-used station in the country, serving just eight passengers per year. In 2020/21, due to decreased travel throughout the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the station saw only two passenger journeys made. The station has been closed since May 2022 with the one operational platform condemned as unsafe.

History

The station is on the original route of the

Stockton & Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near Shildo ...

. Funded by the Teesside Airport Joint Committee, it was opened by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

on 3 October 1971. The airport is located around a mile from the station, and accessibility issues are a major factor in its lack of usage. In 2004, the airport changed its name to Durham Tees Valley Airport, but reverted to Teesside International Airport in 2019. The station's name was never updated to reflect the change. In 2007,

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated th ...

erected new signs reading ''Teesside Airport'', replacing previous signs which had used a hyphen in ''Tees-side''.

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

now also lists the station as ''Teesside Airport''. On 24 October 2009, a group of 26 people travelled to and from the station on the only scheduled service, to highlight the station's existence and its limited service, and to try to persuade railway authorities to move it closer to the airport terminal. The station was featured on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

programme ''The Ghost Trains of Old England'' in October 2010. It was suggested that a large proportion of the tickets sold for the station are bought by collectors who wish to own tickets with rare or unusual destinations, and do not necessarily travel. The station has two platforms, each long enough for a four-carriage train. In December 2017, it was announced by Durham Tees Valley Airport that the station's footbridge and Middlesbrough-bound platform would be closed, in order to save a quoted total of £6 million on maintenance of the station up until 2022. The station closed in May 2022, being deemed unsafe with owner Teesside Airport refusing to fund repairs.

Facilities

The station has two platforms, with very basic amenities. There is a waiting shelter on the former Middlesbrough-bound platform, which is no longer accessible using the metal footbridge. There is step-free access to the Darlington-bound platform.

Services

As of the May 2021 timetable change, the station was served by a once-weekly westbound service on a Sunday, between

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

.Services were operated by

. The 1986

timetable shows that the station was served by an hourly service, which operated seven days a week. However, since the early 1990s, the station has received only a bare minimum

parliamentary service A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act req ...

, to avoid the need for formal closure proceedings.

Service before closure

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Airport railway stations in the United Kingdom Low usage railway stations in the United Kingdom Railway stations in the Borough of Darlington DfT Category F1 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1971 Railway stations opened by British Rail Former Northern franchise railway stations