Darlington Station Improvement Works

How not to spend over £100m

I visited Darlington recently. The station is about to have a £100m makeover.

Let’s but that in context. Darlington is home to 93,000 people, and is growing more slowly than average. £100m works out at £1075 per local resident to improve the station. That is a lot of money. Imagine going to the school gates and asking families whether they would rather have a better station, or be given £4300 in cash, tax free. I think we know what sort of answers we would get.

Darlington station is the third busiest station in the North East - a long way behind Newcastle, and just above Durham. By national standards Darlington is not especially well-used - it ranked 223rd, just below Catford Bridge.

Let’s think about those two stations for a moment. Darlington is a huge station, with four platforms, and two additional fast lines through the station. Catford Bridge is a tiny station with two platforms, and no possibility of fast trains going straight through. Darlington has a cafe, and Catford does not. Darlington has toilets, and Catford does not. Darlington has a taxi rank, and Catford does not. Darlington has a full length canopy to protect people from the weather, and Catford does not. That said, Catford does have a derelict building on one of its platforms, which Darlington does not. Someone visiting both and being asked which was more in need of investment would pick Catford every time.

The trains are much better quality from Darlington as well. The most popular journey is to Newcastle. Those trains are typically new, and have air conditioning, toilets, a cafe, first class sections and quiet coaches. In contrast the trains from Catford typically have none of these facilities: indeed, they don’t even have a guard on board.

The trains from Darlington are much faster as well. The 36 mile journey to Newcastle takes just under half an hour, an average speed of 75mph. The most popular journey from Catford Bridge is to London Bridge. The train takes 16 minutes to cover just 6 miles, an average speed of 23mph.

To add insult to injury, trains from Darlington are much, much cheaper as well. A single off peak ticket to Newcastle is typically £7.70, or 21p a mile. The off peak Oyster card fare is £3.70, which is 62p per mile - almost three times the price.

In short, Londoners are paying three times the price per mile, to travel at one third the speed, on a train that objectively is much worse to travel on, from a station that is much less pleasant.

And despite all this, Darlington station is getting a £100m upgrade!

There is a narrative in Britain that the South, and London in particular, gets all the investment. That is not always the case - there are many ways in London and the south are getting a bad deal. Rail is one such - the total subsidies to rail in the North of England are much, much greater than in the South - as the Office for Road and Rail makes clear. The Merseyrail, Wales, and Scottish rail franchises are subsidised by more than 30p per passenger mile, about ten times as much as trains in the South East.

So my policy recommendation is two fold…