Origins

The current route of the Durham Coast Line has its origins in some of the earliest locomotive-operated railways in North East England. The oldest section of the line in use today is that between North Shore Junction and Norton South Junction,^[3][4] constructed by the Clarence Railway. As with many of the early railways, this line was constructed primarily for the transportation of coal from western and central areas of the Durham Coalfield to the River Tees at North Shore (in Stockton), and Port Clarence. Despite major financial difficulties, this line was opened to mineral traffic in 1833, but did not carry passengers until July 1835, when a service was introduced between Coxhoe and Stockton (Clarence).^[3][4]

The opening of the Clarence was closely followed by the Hartlepool Dock & Railway, a similar concern, intended to link the collieries surrounding the City of Durham, to the coast at Hartlepool (rather than the River Tees). The HD&R was first authorised by an Act of Parliament obtained on 1 June 1832 to construct a 14-mile railway from Moorsley (near Houghton-le-Spring) to Hartlepool with several short branches to serve collieries surrounding the line. The company obtained a further Act of 16 June 1834 which permitted construction of an additional branch to Gilesgate in the City of Durham.^[5] However competition from other railways^[6] meant that the H&DR main line only reached as far as Haswell and most of its branches were either cut short or left unbuilt; the curtailed line opened for mineral traffic on 23 November 1835^[4] and passengers four years later.

The Durham & Sunderland Railway opened to both passenger and mineral traffic between Sunderland Town Moor, and collieries at Hetton-le-Hole and Haswell in 1836,^[7] competing directly with the HD&R for coal traffic from the latter.^[3] However, it was the D&SR which constructed the first significant north–south section of the Durham Coast Line, that between Ryhope Grange Junction and Ryhope.^[2] In conjunction with the HD&R, the D&SR thus enabled passengers to travel between Sunderland and Hartlepool for the first time by rail, although passengers had to change stations at Haswell at the time.^[5]

Tyne to Tees rail passenger travel then quickly became possible (with three changes of station) following the opening of Brandling Junction Railway between Oakwellgate (Gateshead) and Wearmouth (Monkwearmouth) on 5 September 1839^[8] and the Stockton & Hartlepool Railway between the Clarence at Billingham-on-Tees, and a new terminus near West Hartlepool docks on 10 February 1841.^[3] The opening of the High Level Bridge over the River Tyne on 27 September 1849 subsequently extended this route through to Newcastle.^[9]

On its opening on 15 May 1852, the Leeds Northern Railway^[10] linked directly to the Clarence and, in doing so, provided the route with a link to the south.^[3] One year after the LNR reached Stockton, the newly created West Hartlepool Harbour & Railway (now owners of the Clarence lines) began to share the LNR station at North Stockton.^[3]

The last of the independent railways that became part of the modern DCL was the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway of 1854, constructed, primarily, to enable coal traffic from the extensive Londonderry Railway colliery railway network to be diverted from Seaham Harbour (which had become unable to handle the large volumes of coal passing through it) to the recently constructed South Dock at Sunderland^[7] and thus followed route which parallel the D&SR north of Ryhope. Like the rest of the railways discussed here, the LS&SR later introduced a passenger service on 2 July 1855 between Seaham and Hendon Burn.^[8][7]

Amalgamations and the creation of a through route

v t e Durham Coast Line
Legend
East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh Waverley Tyne & Wear Metro to Newcastle Airport & St James Newcastle Central King Edward VII Bridge & High Level Bridge over River Tyne Gateshead Gateshead Interchange East Coast Main Line to Darlington & Tyne Valley line to Carlisle Gateshead Stadium Felling Heworth  A184  Pelaw Leamside line to Leamside Tyne & Wear Metro to South Shields & Freight line to Jarrow Metro trains join main line Springwell ( closed 1872 )  A194  Fellgate  A19  Stanhope and Tyne Railway to Consett Brockley Whins Stanhope and Tyne Railway (freight) to Tyne Dock Harton Branch to Tyne Dock East Boldon Seaburn Former freight line to Sunderland North Dock Stadium of Light Hylton, Southwick & Monkwearmouth Rly to Washington Monkwearmouth St Peter's Monkwearmouth Railway Bridge over River Wear Sunderland Docks Sunderland Tyne & Wear Metro to South Hylton Durham–Sunderland line to Durham Elvet Ryhope East Seaham Hall Dene (private) Seaham Seaham Harbour Hawthorn Tower Halt ( 1936–1946 for workmen ) Hawthorn Dene Viaduct over Hawthorn Burn Easington Horden ( 2020- 1905-1964 ) Denemouth Viaduct over Castle Eden Burn Blackhall Colliery Blackhall Rocks Crimdon Dene Viaduct over Crimdon Beck Hartlepool Dock & Railway to Haswell & Ferryhill Hart Hartlepool (HD&R) Hartlepool Docks West Hartlepool Docks Hartlepool ("West Hartlepool" until 1967) Seaton Carew Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station Delivery depot Greatham[11] Billingham Clarence Railway (freight) to Seal Sands Billingham-on-Tees ( first station )  A19  Norton-on-Tees Clarence Railway (freight) to Ferryhill Stockton Castle Eden Railway to Wellfield Tees Valley line to Darlington Surtees Rail Bridge over River Tees Thornaby Tees Marshalling Yard  A19  Newport ( closed 1915 ) Middlesbrough Tees Valley line to Saltburn Esk Valley line to Whitby

The Clarence had struggled financially, almost continuously since its construction began, and so the more successful Stockton & Hartlepool Railway took out a 21-year lease on it in 1844 which became permanent in 1851. The two companies were then formally amalgamated together and with the West Hartlepool Harbour & Dock Company on 17 May 1853, to form the West Hartlepool Harbour & Railway.^[3]

Meanwhile, as part of its expansion, Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway had taken over the BJR on 1 September 1844,^[12] and then purchased the D&SR in 1846.^[13] Following its amalgamation with the Great North of England Railway, the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway became the York & Newcastle Railway, and took out a lease on the HD&R^[5] before both became part of the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway under an Act of 22 July 1848. Finally, in 1854, the YN&BR, LNR, and York & North Midland Railway were amalgamated to form the North Eastern Railway which eventually absorbed the WHH&R in 1865.^[3] Thus, from 1865, one company was in control of the whole through route between Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Sunderland and Newcastle, although the lines remained largely unconnected.

Thus a series of improvements were initiated by the NER to better integrate is fragmented network. For the DCL, one of the first of these saw the construction of a new curve to link the ex-LNR Stockton branch to the former network of Stockton & Darlington Railway (absorbed by the NER in 1863), which linking Middlesbrough to lines towards Stockton and Hartlepool.^[3] Combined with the 1873 realignment of the south to east curve at Norton Junction, which eased the severity of its curvature,^[3] this massively improved the connections between Hartlepool and the rest of the Teesside region.

The rope-worked 1 in 34 incline at Hesleden Bank was realigned in 1874 to reduce the gradient to that of 1 in 52 and thus enable locomotive working over the entire Hartlepool-Sunderland route.^[5]

In 1877, the NER constructed a new chord between the ex-HD&R and ex-D&SR lines at Haswell and replaced the previously separate terminus stations with a new through station.^[14] In the same year, at Hartlepool, they also constructed a direct link between the ex-HD&R and former Stockton & Hartlepool Railway lines which skirts around the western edge of the docks and replaced a more circuitous link through them.^[3] Both the ex-Stockton & Hartlepool Railway and ex-HD&R termini were replaced by new stations at West Hartlepool (in 1880)^[3] and Hartlepool (in 1878),^[14] respectively.

However, of these links constructed by the NER, arguably the most significant was the Monkwearmouth Junction Line of 1879^[15] which linked the ex-D&SR lines at Ryhope Grange Junction to the ex-BJR lines at Monkwearmouth.^[7][2] This involved the construction of the Monkwearmouth Railway Bridge over the River Wear, a new station at Sunderland Central, and tunnels on either side of the station.^[7] Following the opening of Sunderland Central station, NER and LS&SR services were diverted away from the earlier termini and focussed in one location for the first time.^[7]

Following the completion of the improvements of the 1870s, the Durham Coast Line could be operated as a through route but, having not been constructed for such a purpose, doing so it remained challenging. One major issue was that any services running between Hartlepool and Sunderland still had to ascend or descend both the 1:44 incline at Seaton Bank, and the aforementioned incline at Hesleden Bank.^[3] To alleviate this, the NER developed plans to construct a new, more direct, line along the coast. Construction of this new line between Seaham Colliery on the LS&SR, and Hart Junction on the ex-HD&R route was sanctioned in 1894–95.^[3] However its construction was contingent on the NER purchasing the Londonderry Railway's Seaham to Sunderland route and this was not agreed until 1900 when the NER agreed to pay £387,000 for it.^[16]

This new coastal line had to cross the denes at Hawthorn, Castle Eden and Crimdon, each requiring a substantial viaduct; one of the most imposing of these, Horden Viaduct (spanning Castle Eden Dene), is 141 feet (43 m) from ground to rail level, and consists of 10 arches, each with a span of 60 feet (18 m).^[17] The construction of these viaducts required the opening of a special brickfield and, in the case of Horden Viaduct, the creation of a temporary 800 feet (240 m) cableway spanning valley.^[17]

The line opened on 1 April 1905, with new stations constructed at Blackhall Rocks, Horden and Easington,^[18] to serve the new villages that had been created to house workers from the new coastal collieries which came into existence thanks to the provision of the railway.

The NER became part of the London & North Eastern Railway, as part of the 1923 grouping.^[3] Despite them having already begun to experience a decline in traffic due to competition from road transport, the LNER did provide some improvements to the line. One notable improvement implemented by the LNER was the electrification of today's DCL between Newcastle and Pelaw Junction, using the 600 V DC third rail system, as part of an extension of the Tyneside Electrics system to South Shields, inaugurated on 14 March 1938.^[19] The other notable improvement during this period was the opening of additional stations at Blackhall Colliery on the NER-built Seaham to Hart line in 1936,^[17] and at Seaburn on the former Brandling Junction Railway in 1937.^[7]

Decline

On 1 January 1948, the London & North Eastern Railway became part of the nationalised British Railways, and, along with other lines in the North East, the Durham Coast Line originally became part of its North Eastern Region.^[20] The North Eastern Region would, itself, later be merged into the BR's Eastern Region on 2 January 1967.^[20]

By the 1950s, passenger and goods traffic across the country was in decline due to completion from road transport, and as a consequence, most of the earlier east–west lines from which the DCL had developed began to lose passenger services.^[3] These closures included the inland West Hartlepool to Sunderland route through Haswell (the main line between the two towns until 1905), which lost its passenger service on 9 June 1952.^[4]

However the DCL itself was not seriously affected by the closures, until it began to lose stations from 1960 onwards. Even the Beeching Report only recommended the closure of the remaining three intermediate stations between West Hartlepool and Seaham.^[21] This occurred on 4 May 1964, when stopping passenger services along this section of the line were withdrawn.^[21] Elsewhere, the Newcastle—Pelaw—South Shields route was de-electrified in January 1963^[22] and, later, stopping passenger services on this route, and the wider DCL north of Sunderland, were downgraded to Paytrain services, resulting in most intermediate stations becoming unmanned from 5 October 1969.^[20]

Despite this apparent degradation of passenger services, British Rail did implement some improvements during this period, including the replacement of the original station at Billingham with a newer one, closer to the modern town centre on 7 November 1966.^[23]

Freight traffic on the line continued to thrive, whilst the collieries along the line (and a few short sections of the older east–west lines which had been retained as branches for mineral traffic) were still in operation. Owing to the relatively recent development of the coastal collieries, many of them survived until the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Nonetheless, the decline of the British coal industry meant that this traffic, too, was steadily lost, commencing with the cessation of mining operations at Blackhall Colliery, on 16 April 1981^[24] and culminating with that at Wearmouth Colliery, on 24 November 1993.^[25]

In the early 1980s Greatham station saw its services reduced before full closure on 24 November 1991.^[26]

Recent History

The former British Rail stations on the Durham Coast Line at Felling and Pelaw were closed on 5 November 1979, in order to enable their conversion for use by the Tyne and Wear Metro.^[27] They were replaced by a new station at Heworth, opened on the same day.^[27] To give Metro trains dedicated infrastructure British Rail passenger trains services were subsequently diverted onto the previously freight-only relief lines which paralleled the passenger lines between Gateshead and Pelaw Junction.^[27] The Metro line between Haymarket and Heworth opened in November 1981, and as a result, the British Rail station at Gateshead was closed just one week later.^[28]

In 1996, HM Rail Inspectorate approved plans to extend the Metro between Pelaw, Sunderland and South Hylton, along tracks shared with heavy rail DCL services, subject to funding being raised.^[29] A grant of £15 million was awarded by the European Regional Development Fund, but this was subject to the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (Nexus) being able to obtain £35 million of central government funding.^[29] Such funding was awarded in 1999 and, along with £8 million provided by Nexus and a further £40 million invested by Railtrack, enabled construction work to commence in June 2000.^[29] As part of this project, three new purpose-built Metro stations were constructed along the Durham Coast Line at Fellgate, Stadium of Light and St Peter's, the latter of which was constructed close to the site of the long-closed Monkwearmouth station. Existing rail stations at Brockley Whins, East Boldon and Seaburn were converted for Metro services.^[29]

The project also involved the electrification of the Durham Coast Line between Pelaw Junction and Sunderland South Junction, and an upgrade to signalling on that section of the line.^[29] The non-standard electrification system used by the Metro makes this section of the DCL the only Network Rail line to still use the 1,500V DC overhead line system.^[29]

Metro services were extended to South Hylton from 31 March 2002^[30] before the extension was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 May, as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations.^[31]

Under the supervision of Phase 1 the Tees Valley Rail Strategy, the DCL saw service provision become hourly between Newcastle and Hartlepool from 2000. The ultimate goal of a half-hourly service and new stations (Phase 2) was put on hold when the Strategic Rail Authority came into being and funding disappeared.

After many years of development work undertaken by Durham County Council, £10.5 million of funding was agreed in July 2017 to open a new station at Horden,^[32] approximately 200 yards (180 m) north of the site earlier^[33] (1905-1964) station.^[21] This included £4.4 million from the second round of the Department for Transport's New Stations Fund and additional contributions from Durham County Council and the North East Combined Authority.^[34] After some delay,^[35] the new Horden station opened on 29 June 2020.^[5][14]