Well, the Council are now calling it “The Northumberland Line” and so eventually must we. For the moment though I stick with the name SENRUG members have used these last 15 years. Things are looking really positive: The Council is preparing its “Transforming Cities Fund” bid, and are currently consulting on the plans. SENRUG has one or two points to make about the potential station designs, mainly to ensure the selected designs are “future-proofed” as far as possible. To this end, and prior to submitting our response to the consultation, this morning Committee Member Dave Shaw and myself went to Northumberland Park to examine what the Council propose (which seem reasonable in the circumstances), then walked along the line (well – the adjacent footpath) as far as the Backworth Level Crossing, to understand the scope for and any obstacles which might preclude eventual double-tracking. None were found. Prior to that, I took some friends to Manors Station, in order to drop them off at the Megabus stop in John Dobson Street. That gave me the opportunity to examine the possibilities for 4 tracking and a 2nd platform through the station along with the need to integrate with the Metro station below and to provide a level access exit which would have been useful as we dragged the 2 heavy suitcases over the bridge.
