THE next train standing in a dales station soon could be the 10.25 to Paris or even Moscow.

For the US owners of the Weardale Railway are pressing ahead with new developments after re-connecting with the main East Coast network at the weekend.


Ed Ellis, the Colorado businessman who heads the venture, was the first person to board a new service linking Stanhope with Bishop Auckland, Darlington and King’s Cross, yesterday morning.

In a few months’ time his company, British American Rail Services, plan to join the country’s rail operating companies, opening up the possibility of Weardale travellers buying national and international fares at their tiny country ticket counters.

Mr Ellis led the celebrations at the reopening of the new stretch of line between Wolsingham and Bishop Auckland at the weekend.

Rail enthusiasts packed bridges and other vantage points to see the line’s steam engine locomotive No 40 carry 150 guests on the historic hour-long journey.

Commuter trains will be diesel-operated and faster, running five times a week on Mondays to Fridays, four on Saturdays and three on Sundays.

There will also be a limited steam service.

The service represents a £1.5m investment for Mr Ellis and his US and British backers and will rely on subsidies from new freight enterprises.

He told guests at Stanhope Station the occasion was a special one, saying: “The idea of reopening 11 miles of rail is not something that happens every day anywhere in the world.

“This is just the beginning.

We need to tell everybody that there are regular passenger services between Stanhope, Wolsingham and Bishop Auckland.

“It is a wonderful feeling to achieve what you set out to achieve. It is a great day.”

There has been no regular timetabled passenger service from Weardale to Bishop Auckland since 1958, apart from a summer train on Sundays from Saltburn to Stanhope, which ended when the line shut when cement trains were withdrawn in 1993.

Steam enthusiasts started campaigning to restore trains as soon as this happened, but have endured many setbacks and disappointments along the way.

The new service will rely on volunteers from the Weardale Railway Trust and its enthusiastic junior club.

Railway fan, the Dean of Durham the Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove blessed No 40 as it left Bishop Auckland.

The Dean has a house in Weardale and will encourage visiting friends to use the line.

He said: “This railway will enhance the lives of both visitors and the people who live and work in Weardale.

“Railways also make an important contribution to creating sustainable environments, and this too is a real benefit.

“County Durham is the cradle of the railway. The heritage or our region is not simply its great buildings and wide landscapes, magnificent though they are.

“It is our living communities, past and present, who have made it what it is.”