My phone’s been ringing all week, and several enquiries on the SENRUG website, all querying ongoing press coverage on the “Metro to Ashington” plan. We are delighted that NECA’s report to its Members Board was accepted at their meeting last Tuesday, but please journalists and Councillors, this is NOT what the report says. The report makes it clear the route to Ashington will be on the existing heavy rail freight route. I can understand journalists either being lazy and not reading the report in full, or perhaps not understanding what they are reading. But I’m surprised to hear senior Councillors (not from Northumberland I hasten to add) coming on television to say we are extending the Metro to Ashington. Creating confusion in this way will not help us progress the project.
