Today I met Cllrs Sanderson and Wearmouth from NCC. We discussed the Northumberland Line opening date. There still is no formal date at present – though it looks like “summer” will actually be “late summer”. But I pointed out that even with say a September opening, tickets should go on sale in June. Why would people want to buy tickets in advance? Consider a journey from Ashington to London. If tickets for the Ashington – Newcastle section are not released until a few days before Northumberland Line trains start running, then by this time all the cheaper tickets for Newcastle to London would have sold out. We also discussed next steps for the Newcastle – Berwick local service proposal. It does seem most pragmatically we’ll need to wait until the results of the North East Mayor elections before deciding how best to take this forward. All in all a constructive meeting with useful dialogue and I am extremely grateful to both Councillors for giving up their time to meet me.
