Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the inclusion of the Northallerton to Teesport line in the rail electrification scheme.

Andrew Jones

The Transpennine Route Upgrade is an ambitious and challenging programme which is due to be delivered by December 2022. There are currently no plans within this scope to electrify the line between Northallerton and Teesport. However, this does not preclude the thinking of future electrification as a further phase following the delivery of the current scope in 2022.

I can confirm that the current assumption for services between Manchester and Middlesbrough is that these will operated by new bi-mode trains i.e. capable of diesel and electric operation. The new bi-mode will offer significant journey time savings for passengers on this route.