Stockton and Darlington Railway: 200th Anniversary Festival

Baggy Shanker Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Gateshead South) (Lab)]

It is always great to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this wonderful and very important debate, for which I must thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland), who secured it. We have heard some great speeches already.

The Stockton and Darlington railway is an incredible part of our regional transport history. As we have heard, it was the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives. I am thrilled that we are now celebrating 200 years since its first public journey. The international heritage festival taking place across County Durham and Tees Valley is an excellent opportunity to display our region’s contribution not just to the country, but worldwide.

[Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)]

This summer, Derby celebrated Railway 200 in style, bringing 40,000 people together in just three days to mark the Greatest Gathering, which was the largest collection of new and heritage railway stock ever assembled anywhere in the world and included Locomotion No. 1. From Darlington to Derby, will my hon. Friend acknowledge our incredible volunteers who are working hard in every part of the United Kingdom to mark Railway 200? It has been a roaring success so far, and I am sure it will be for the rest of the year. Does she agree that the celebrations are not just looking at the past, but inspiring the next generation to carry on our great railway heritage into the future?

[Mrs Hodgson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent intervention. He raised very important points. Yes, while looking to the past, it is important to look to the future. He spoke also about the importance of volunteers in our heritage railways across the country. Without those volunteers, those railways would be long gone. He made a very important point in mentioning the volunteers.

Last year in Great Britain, surface rail alone accounted for 9,848—just under 10,000—miles of track and more than 1.6 billion passenger rail journeys, showing its continued significance nationwide. The Government understand the importance of our railways, and they are working harder to create more journeys and to reduce delays. I support their plans to bring our railways finally back into public ownership.

I would like to mention my own constituency of Washington and Gateshead South, which is home to the Bowes railway, which opened just four short months later on 17 January 1826. It will be celebrating its bicentennial next year. The earliest section of the Bowes railway was designed by George Stephenson, who, as we know, also helped to design the Stockton and Darlington railway. The Bowes railway is the world’s only operational preserved standard-gauge cable railway system, which used stationary steam engines and gravity to move coal wagons from the pits in Durham to the River Tyne. It is still there to this day, as the Bowes Railway Museum is proudly in Springwell village in my constituency.

I also want to take this opportunity to discuss the Leamside line—you didn’t think you were going to get away without me mentioning that one, did you, Mr Stringer? It begins at Ferryhill in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor and passes through Washington, on to Gateshead and South Tyneside to Pelaw. The first section of the Leamside line opened in 1838 and served our communities until it was closed to passengers in 1964, under the Beeching cuts. It was mothballed in the 1990s. As chair of the Leamside line all-party parliamentary group, I have campaigned, with the help of my hon. Friend, to reopen the line and to bring trains to Washington, which is one of the largest towns in the UK without a direct rail link.

I am delighted that, following our Government’s spending review in June, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has announced that the first sections of the Leamside line will be reopened as part of the Tyne and Wear Metro, linking stations at Pelaw and South Hylton via Washington. That will include three new stations at Follingsby in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow and Gateshead East (Kate Osborne) and Washington North and Washington South in my constituency. I will continue to campaign to reopen the full 21-mile line connecting our constituencies, taking pressure off the east coast main line and helping commuters get to employers in my constituency, such as, to name a few, Nissan, BAE systems and Rolls-Royce. There are many more.

Rail continues to be of vital importance as we seek to grow our local economy and look for solutions to climate change. The heritage festival is an incredible opportunity to celebrate our region’s history, as well as the future of our trains, as they continue to serve an essential part of our lives.