Ben Houchen Unveils £1bn Hartlepool and Tees Valley Transport Plans

The Tees Valley Mayor talks about proposed £40m direct rail link to Darlington and £50m A689 improvements.

Transcript

00:00 Well we made proposals today on the assumption that the five local authority leaders back them on the 26th of January

00:05 because they ultimately need to approve them.

00:07 There's significant investment coming into Harlepool.

00:09 So, number one, we're going to be funding the Elwick bypass that Harlepool Council have been trying to deliver for a long time.

00:14 We're going to give them the money to be able to get on and deliver that.

00:17 The A689, we all know the A689 is not great, it needs a vast amount of improvements.

00:21 We're committing £50 million to make those improvements so that Harlepool is better connected to Stockton,

00:26 into Sedgfield and the rest of the region much more effectively.

00:30 And what we're also seeing is a significant investment in Harlepool Rail.

00:33 So we're upgrading the railway station, but one of the things that people in Harlepool talk to me about a lot

00:37 are better trains to Newcastle and direct trains to Darlington.

00:40 Well, we're going to be building a new platform 3 at Middlesbrough.

00:43 Why does that matter to the people of Harlepool?

00:45 Well with that platform 3 at Harlepool, it allows for the express trains and more frequent trains going via Harlepool to Newcastle.

00:51 And also, we're going to be building an additional platform at Darlington train station.

00:54 We're building a new station, we've got capacity for an extra platform, we're going to put that platform in,

00:58 we're going to do some track and rail improvements and that's going to mean that once that's finished,

01:02 we will see direct trains between Hartlepool and Darlington, which I think is well overdue, much needed

01:07 and hopefully the people of Darlington and Harlepool will be very pleased to see come.

01:12 And just quickly going back to the A689 Ben, I mean, what sort of improvements can be made to that road?

01:18 Well there's significant road improvements and upgrades that we need to the A689 to increase capacity,

01:22 but there's also a lot of cycling and walkway improvements, there's additional capacity improvements,

01:27 there's pinch point improvements, it's something that has been advertised a lot by Hartlepool Council over the last 3 or 4 years.

01:32 We thought we were there with the government, where the government were going to give us the money to do it,

01:35 but now the government have given us a billion pounds, it makes sense to just get on, use the £50 million of that money that we've got,

01:41 get on and deliver those improvements. All of those improvements are available to people,

01:45 I know through Hartlepool Council they've been well publicised.

01:47 (car engine roaring)