Chester-le-Street is a railway station on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between and . The station, situated south of Newcastle, serves the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at ...

in County Durham, 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 Team Valley Line of the North Eastern Railway, which connected Newton Hall Junction, near , with was authorised in 1848. However, the line was not opened until 2 March 1868, with the powers having been renewed in 1862. At first only freight trains used the route, but passenger services began on 1 December 1868, with the station opening on the same day. In the 1960s, the station was listed for closure as part of the Beeching Axe, which led to it being mentioned in the song ''Slow Train'' by

Flanders and Swann Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a scho ...

. However, the station was saved, and still remains open today. In February and March 2022,

tactile paving Tactile paving (also called tenji blocks, truncated domes, detectable warnings, tactile tiles, tactile ground surface indicators, tactile walking surface indicators, or detectable warning surfaces) is a system of textured ground surface indicat ...

was added to the platform edges.

Operator and facilities

Between 1999 and 2018, ''Chester-le-Track'', an independent

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United St ...

, operated the station as an agent for the local franchised train operating company, which at the time of closure was

Arriva Rail North Arriva Rail North, branded as Northern by Arriva (legal name Arriva Rail North Limited) was a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operato ...

. The station's ticket office, waiting area and toilets were staffed six days per week, prior to the building's closure in early 2018. Following the building's closure, two self-service ticket machines have since been installed on the southbound platform. As of July 2021, the station is partially staffed by

Services

Northern Trains

Following the May 2021 timetable change, there are three trains per day (Monday to Saturday) heading north towards

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 ...

, two of which extend to Carlisle via Hexham. On Sunday, there is a once-daily service to Carlisle. Heading south, there is a once-daily service to Darlington, which extends to

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 ...

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

TransPennine Express

Following the May 2021 timetable change, there is a mostly two-hourly service between

and

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast ...

via

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 ...

, with additional services operating at peak times. Rolling stock used: Class 185 ''Desiro''

References

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Railway stations in County Durham DfT Category F1 stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1868 Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Northern franchise railway stations

Railway stations A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...