Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has today spoken about a new rail link from Consett to Newcastle in the House of Commons in a question to the Secretary of State for Transport. You can watch his question here.
During the election campaign, Richard pledged to campaign for a new rail link for North West Durham as part of his promise to improve transport for the constituency. You can read about his promises to North West Durham here. He hosted the Transport Secretary in the constituency to show him the site of the old railway and discussed getting a feasibility study done to look at the potential reopening of a rail line, as well as Government funding for the project. You can read about this here.
Richard is organising and holding meetings with Durham County Council and key stakeholders in North West Durham to discuss a potential feasibility study and a timescale for the project. He is also having regular meetings in Parliament with the Transport Secretary and Ministers in the Department for Transport to discuss the future of a potential rail link and what options there are.
Commenting, Richard said ‘I am campaigning hard to get a feasibility study to look at the rail link from Consett to Newcastle. This was something I promised I’d do during the election campaign and I am working extremely hard to deliver on my campaign promises – previous MPs had not looked into this issue and, when I became MP, it was clear that there was no current work being done to get a rail line. The Transport Secretary has now pledged his support for a feasibility study to be done on a number of occasions – he expressed his support during the election campaign and again today in the House. This is on top of positive meetings I’ve had to discuss it with Ministers and the work I am doing on it locally, holding meetings with the council and with residents. I am taking this project extremely seriously as I know how important it is for the constituency to see improvements in transport infrastructure and I will continue to campaign for a feasibility study’.
To hear more about the work that Richard is doing for North West Durham, you can sign up here or input your details in the form on this page.