Questions over Metro Loop costs
Questions have been asked over the “incredibly high” cost of developing plans to take the Tyne and Wear Metro to Washington.
North East mayor Kim McGuinness announced plans last week to put £8 million into the efforts to create a long-awaited Washington Metro Loop, using the northern section of the mothballed Leamside railway line.
That money will be spent developing an outline business case for the vast project, which could ultimately cost £745 million to deliver but has been touted as something that could boost the region’s economy by £90 million a year and return train services to communities left without any for decades.
A further £600,000 is due to be spent on developing plans for a restoration of the southern section of the Leamside Line, which runs through County Durham and connects up to the East Coast Main Line.
But North East transport bosses were questioned on Tuesday over the price tag for the business case, for which Metro operator Nexus will prepare full details on the Metro extension’s new stations, costs, and economic benefits.
Dominic McDonough, a Tory councillor in Sunderland, asked how officials on the new North East Combined Authority (NECA) would ensure that the project is value for taxpayer money.
He told NECA’s overview and scrutiny committee: “One of the first big announcements we have had from the mayor is £8.6 million for the business case for the Leamside Line… that seems incredibly high for me.”
He added: “How are we making sure that we are counting the pennies and getting good value for money with all our plans going forward?”
Coun McDonough told the committee that the equivalent business for the reopening of the similarly mothballed Northumberland Line, connecting Blyth and Ashington to Newcastle, was just £1.5 million.
The Department for Transport did provide £1.5 million in January 2020 to support delivery of the Northumberland Line’s outline business case, though it is unclear whether that covered the full costs.
Northumberland County Council was asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Wednesday what the total cost of the Northumberland Line’s outline business case was, but had not replied at time of writing.
NECA transport director Tobyn Hughes replied at Tuesday’s meeting in Durham that £8 million seemed “quite light” compared to the overall bill for the reopening of the Leamside Line.
He added: “Railways lines cost a lot of money… The Northumberland Line has encountered many of these challenges, whether it is old mine workings, iron age forts, great crested newts delaying project works. And so the list continues.”
Mr Hughes added: “If a railway line was a skyscraper you would not just give a couple of quid to an architect and then tell the builders to go and build it. You need to design it up and understand every aspect of how that work will progress.
“In order to get a proper scheme that is costed well and can be built to the timescaled you set out, in order to get through the planning process which itself is extensive… you must do a good job. That is what that money will be spent on.”