£1m pledged to link rail line with port (From The Northern Echo)

£1m pledged to link rail line with port

9:27am Thursday 1st April 2010 in Support Our Port By Deborah Johnson

LONG-STANDING plans to link Teesport with the East Coast Main Line took a significant step forward yesterday, after a commitment was made to develop the line by 2014.

The planned work, which has been identified as a regional priority, has been backed by £1m to develop proposals for the gauge enhancement, and a commitment that work would then be carried out.

The upgrade of the line has been hailed as a way to make Teesport – which is creating a deep water Northern Gateway Container Terminal, to allow direct imports from the Far East – more competitive by securing more traffic destined for Scotland and Northern England.

Yesterday, it was revealed the Northern Way – a partnership of three northern regional development agencies (Yorkshire Forward, Northwest Regional Development Agency and One North East) – has committed £1m to commission Network Rail to carry out the study.

Partners including Teesport owner PD Ports and Tees Valley Unlimited are now looking at how to deliver the work by 2014.

David Robinson, chief executive of PD Ports, said: “This acknowledges the essential role which Teesport plays as a key economic driver in the Tees Valley and the whole of the North-East region.

“An upgraded rail link is vital to connect Teesport to the rest of the UK rail network for freight distribution.

In the longer term, this will attract further inward investment to the region, creating new jobs and increasing skills.”

Professor David Begg, chairman of the Northern Way Transport Group, said in ten years, at least 50 per cent of cargo arriving in the UK will be too big to transport by road.

“A top priority for the Northern Way is therefore to ensure that it is possible to move high cube containers to markets in the Midlands and Scotland from the Tees and the Humber,” he said.

“We are working closely with Network Rail and the ports to make this happen by 2014.”

Jim Darlington, One North East’s chief regional planner, said: “Teesport and the logistics industries that it supports are both major drivers of the Tees Valley economy.

“Increasing the capacity to move freight by rail from the port will attract significantly more activity to Teesport, which in turn will result in new investment and new jobs, and will also take a significant amount of traffic off our roads.”

The project forms part of the Tees Valley Industrial Programme, which has seen One North East and the Government commit £60m to support the area’s transition to low carbon and advanced manufacturing industries.