Hopes for HS2 upgrade at Darlington: Chris Grayling says it's on his 'serious to do' list

Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, and Darlington Council leader Bill Dixon, greeted the minister at the station to help press the case for the £107m project to make Bank Top station HS2-ready and improve connectivity to London to under two hours.

They gave him a tour and a presentation – and spoke of the importance of investing in rail in the town where the railways were born.

If backed by Government, Darlington 2025 could create up to 3,000 new jobs in the Tees Valley.

While the new high speed line stops at Leeds, the trains are designed to run on ordinary lines too, for onward connections, and Darlington's platform will have to be extended if it is to benefit from HS2.

Mr Grayling told The Northern Echo: "I think one of the reasons I wanted to find out about Darlington is that I buy the argument that this station will need to be modernised ahead of the arrival of HS2.

"We are bringing HS2 trains to Darlington and it has to be right for that, and the Tees Valley Mayor, Ben, has been showing me the vision for what we could do.

"With HS2 much of it is a high-speed bypass which enables you to get a train from London to the north much more quickly.

"I think we have a lot of work to do, my view is that HS2 cannot come to Darlington without modernisation of the station and it has got to be something we put on our serious 'to do' list."

Council leader Bill Dixon added: "We have the plan in place, all the work has been done, all we need now is to get it to the next level as long as we can keep the pressure up.

"There is no way we could bring HS2 to the North-East without doing this. HS2 would stop at York.

"It would be the economic end for our area."

Mr Grayling also visited Middlesbrough with Simon Clarke, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP, to witness the so-called "Marton Crawl" bottleneck as Mr Clarke presses for investment to improve it.