Network
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NETWORK Rail is to build two new platforms for Darlington station, in a £99 million project.
Platform 5 will be a southbound through platform for long-distance services and Platform 6 a bay platform serving the lines to and from Eaglescliffe.
Both will sit outside the station’s current trainshed, but will be linked to it by a new bridge that will be installed as part of work that is under way to build a new eastern concourse.
Steelwork for the concourse is now appearing as part of a £150m project masterminded by the Tess Valley Combined Authority.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said in January: “Darlington deserves a top-class station to mark its rise as a civil service and technological powerhouse,” adding that it was remarkable to see how quickly the project was taking shape.
NR told RAIL that Platform 5 would be served by a loop off the Up Main line. There is already an Up Goods Loop on the site and NR said it would be building a new freight loop.
Track work is scheduled to be done in February and March 2025 during annual weekend engineering closures, with final commissioning of new signalling set for autumn 2025. This commissioning will need the line through Darlington to be closed, but NR said it could not yet confirm the date for this.
Work should start on the new footbridge this spring. NR received consent from Darlington Borough Council to alter the station, with permission necessary because the station is listed Grade 2* for architectural merit.
NR plans to demolish the travel centre that British Rail built in the 1970s and which sits between the station’s north and south ranges that were built when the current
station opened in 1887. Part of the space created will be used for the staircase and lifts up to the footbridge.
The footbridge then runs over Platform 1, its track and the adjacent Up/Down Station Loop before p
