Weardale Railway revival could be fuelled by coal

Dec 14 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

PLANS to ferry coal along the tracks of a tourist railway in County Durham are being unveiled today.

Owners of the Weardale Railway in County Durham are in talks with UK Coal about transporting over one million tonnes of coal from Wolsingham to power stations in the South and Midlands.

A public exhibition on the proposals is being held today at Wolsingham Town Hall between 3pm and 8pm.

The coal would come from a UK Coal opencast site at Park Wall North between Crook and Wolsingham.

The site has the capacity to produce 1.27 million tonnes of coal and 500,000 tones of fireclay over four years. A joint statement between Weardale Railway and UK Coal said: “The ability of the Weardale Railway to assist in moving the coal by rail will greatly reduce the environmental and community impacts by reducing highway usage.”

Volunteers from the Weardale Railway Trust worked tirelessly to clear 11 miles of track between Wolsingham and Bishop Auckland to enable the railway to link with the main network on to Darlington and from there on to the East Coast Main Line.

Next month railway inspectors are to carry out an inspection on the restored track.

If, as expected, they give it the green light the first service to use the line will be a passenger charter train from London King’s Cross to Stanhope, Weardale on February 19.