Dear Sir,
As an Aycliffe Village resident I have no objection to the principle of re-opening the old Village main line station, and agree it would be very convenient to catch trains to go North or South and would certainly help those that have to commute on a regular basis.
I do, however, have a number of concerns and it is those concerns that will, I believe, make this idea a non-starter. When the station was closed originally it was because of lack of economic use and at that time few people from this area had need to travel regularly to Newcastle or Durham.
Times have changed and so have people’s mode of transport. The re-opened station would require a significant car park and I cannot envisage where that would be, to serve both up and down lines.
The roads through the Village are narrow and parking is a problem even now without the addition of all day parking by those using the Station. The popular trains would coincide with children leaving in the morning to local schools and bus collection points and returning in the afternoons.
The bridge over the Skerne in the Village is not designed for high volumes of traffic and if this idea did get the go ahead would need significant upgrading.
The only answer would be to find another approach, other than through the village itself, this would be an exceptionally difficult route to find, even if land could be purchased and new bridges over the river and tunnel under the railway could be built. This of course would add dramatically to the very significant cost of re opening the Station itself.
For these reasons and in the current economic climate I believe this project, however well meaning, would not receive the funding to proceed.
Roger Curtis