The Tees Valley Line is a rail route, in

Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

, 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 Teesdale is a dale, or valley, in Northern England. The dale is in the River Tees’s drainage basin, most water flows stem from or converge into said river, including the Skerne and Leven. Upper Teesdale, more commonly just Teesdale, falls b ...

. The section of line between and is branded as ''The Bishop Line'', and is supported by the Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership. Beyond the line's western terminus at Bishop Auckland, the tracks continue for around to along what is now the

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. Th ...

Heritage Railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

Service

Services on the Tees Valley Line are operated 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 ...

, with an hourly service running between

Saltburn Saltburn-by-the-Sea, commonly referred to as Saltburn, is a seaside town in Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England, around south-east of Hartlepool and southeast of Redcar. It lies within the historic boundaries of the North Rid ...

and

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

, and half-hourly trains to Darlington. Additional

services operate along the Tees Valley Line during the morning peak, with some journeys between

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

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 ...

running along the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

, rather than the

Durham Coast Line The Durham Coast Line is an approximately railway line running between Newcastle and in North East England. Heavy rail passenger services, predominantly operated Northern Trains, and some freight services operate over the whole length of the li ...

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

also operate along part of the Tees Valley Line, with hourly services from Redcar Central and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

and Manchester Airport. Predominantly, rolling stock on the Tees Valley Line consists of Class 156 and Class 158

diesel multiple units A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

operated by

, as well Class 185

operated by

. The Class 156 and 158 units operating on the Tees Valley Line are currently in the process of being refurbished, with upgrades including free WiFi, power sockets, on-board passenger information displays, and an interior refresh. Class 185 units operated by

were refurbished as part of a £32 million investment, with the work being completed in 2018. Class 142 'Pacer' trains also served the line on Northern services, until the turn of the new decade, when they were withdrawn from passenger service. The route serves the following stations:

Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on the Stockton and Darli ...

Newton Aycliffe Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. Founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act 1946, New Towns Act of 1946, the town sits about five miles to the north of Darlington and ten miles to the south of Durham, E ...

, Heighington, North Road (Darlington), Darlington, Dinsdale,

Teesside 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 ...

, Allens West, Eaglescliffe,

Thornaby Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Tees's southern bank. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The parish had a population of 24,74 ...

, South Bank, Redcar Central, Redcar East, Longbeck, Marske and

History

The section of line between

and Darlington (prior to joining the

), as well as the section between Dinsdale (near Middleton St. George) and Eaglescliffe, follow 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 ...

, which dates back to 1825. The line from

, as well as the freight only line to Boulby Mine, were part of the Whitby, Redcar & Middlesbrough Union Railway, until the line's closure on 5 May 1958. In March 2015, a electrified siding was laid adjacent to the Tees Valley Line, just south of Heighington. This allows low-speed testing of the trains manufactured at the nearby

Hitachi Rail () is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo ...

plant at

, including TOPS classes

800 __NOTOC__ Year 800 ( DCCC) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was around this time that the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years, so ...

801 __NOTOC__ Year 801 ( DCCCI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Emperor Charlemagne formally cedes Nordalbian territory (modern-day Schleswig-H ...

805 __NOTOC__ Year 805 ( DCCCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Siege of Patras: Local Slavic tribes of the Peloponnese lay siege t ...

807 __NOTOC__ Year 807 ( DCCCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Abbasid Empire and Byzantine Empire * Emperor Nikephoros I is forced to sue for peace, ...

810 __NOTOC__ Year 810 ( DCCCX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – The Venetian dukes change sides again, submitting to Ki ...

and 385.Newton Aycliffe's Hitachi train plant connected to main line
''BBC News'' 25 March 2015

Least-used stations

Prior to the suspension of services to Redcar British Steel in 2019, the Tees Valley Line was home to two of the country's least-used rail stations.

Redcar British Steel

In 2017-18, Redcar British Steel was the least-used station in Britain, with an estimated 40 passenger journeys made. Prior to service suspension in December 2019, Redcar British Steel was served by two trains during the morning peak (07:57 to

& 08:25 to

), and two during the evening peak (16:58 to

& 18:17 to

Teesside Airport

In 2012–13 and 2013–14,

was the least-used station in the country, with just 8 passenger journeys made per year, in both periods. As of the December 2019 timetable change, Teesside Airport is currently served by a once-weekly

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 ...

. Currently, the single Sunday service, commencing at

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 ...

, is timetabled to call at

at 14:54, before continuing through to Darlington.

Stations

References

External links

GenMaps - Maps of Durham, Yorkshire 1885NPEMaps - Maps of area circa 1950Network Rail maps of Route 9 - North East RoutesCommunigate - Grangetown streets and buildingsThe Bishop Line
{{Railway lines in North East England Railway lines in North East England Rail transport in County Durham Rail transport in North Yorkshire Transport in Middlesbrough Community railway lines in England