Yesterday I did a brief interview with Channel 4 News on the Ashington Blyth & Tyne re-opening. The feature was broadcast today. If you missed it you can see at https://www.channel4.com/news/its-definitely-a-town-caught-up-in-the-past-how-sluggish-growth-is-affecting-one-former-mining-town. You’ll have to wait almost until the end of the 5-minute clip for my brief contribution. Locals will also observe those shots actually including a train or a signal are at Bedlington, rather than Ashington, but the interview with me was definitely on the southbound platform at Ashington station, and it is good for Ashington as a whole to be featured by Channel 4 news in this way. Our thanks to SENRUG member Sally Millner who kicked the whole thing off by raising the case for the re-opening during the Chief Economist to the Bank of England’s visit to Ashington last month. It was the subsequent entry on his blog (see https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/events/2018/february/town-hall-ashington) that came to the attention of Channel 4. When the Chief Economist of the Bank of England says that his hunch is that the economic benefits of re-opening the railway line would be “whopper” we can perhaps conclude our campaign is getting somewhere. This evening’s feature on Ashington was part of a wider piece including an interview with the Governor of the Bank of England on economic policy.
