Sheepfolds investment plans

The issue is the way in which they calculate the added value for new schemes.

To make the cut they have to be seen to boost the economy. While that seems fair, it means that areas which are already better off get more investment as there is already more money there meaning that those schemes are more profitable as there is more money to make use of the new schemes.

it can become a vicious circle resulting in wealthy parts of the country getting richer while the rest fall further behind

 

If only the ‘much needed’ Cross Rail / Elizabeth Line had delivered to the agreed budget.
£4 Billion overspend on a project where most places already had better transport connections than the majority of North East towns.
It’s obvious to anyone travelling on that line as to where the money is being invested in this country.

 

Yep agreed, mind that £4b will be a drop in the ocean compared to the wasted money on HS2 when its totted up.

 

I'm sure they will mate, they'll want better transport links to the SOL, but ultimately it's up to the North East residents of everywhere south of Newcastle to push this agenda.

 

And of course loosing European monies hasn’t helped. It focused on need and deprivation more than anything else. However what Sunderland Council have been very good at is tapping into external funding opportunities. Hopefully long may it continue,

 

Exactly, our MP’s should be pushing for this …

… Sunderland needs to start acting like a city, not an afterthought.

 

Spot on mate. There's no point building 2 extra platforms at Sunderland station unless you're going to use them.
The main point is that the investment projects that you mention will increase profitability for the whole North East economy INCLUDING Newcastle.

When I met with Nexus, and in my letter to Transport North East, I mentioned that the purpose of the Leamside Line isn't just to get freight trains off the ECML, it's to provide passenger transport links to other places across the North East from the South of the region and beyond.
I saw no sense in running separate regional Northern Rail trains to Newcastle and Sunderland. Just run one up to Penshaw, which is the last northbound station before the line splits, then let the Metro take over from there. This will cause far less congestion, particularly between Sunderland and Penshaw and Newcastle and Penshaw, allowing more room for freight and Intercity services out of the region from Sunderland and Newcastle.
The people I spoke to from Nexus were in agreement and actually said that Penshaw could be a terminus for Metro trains and an interchange station for Northern Rail.
Needless to say, I have yet to receive a reply to my letter from Transport North East.
Sharon Hodgson MP has been an avid campaigner for the Leamside. Now that she's got her wish for the Metro to come to Washington, I hope she is vociferous in her campaigning for the southern half of the Leamside to reopen.

 

Keep going mate.

 

I will do mate. I've got the bit between my teeth on this one.
The result of the feasibility study, costings for Phase One is due at the end of the year and the Mayors transport committee meets in January. It'll be interesting to see if Penshaw is included in the first phase, like myself and several other apparently (according to Nexus) have suggested, so that the Metro side of the operation (in and out of Penshaw) can be tested and perfected before work starts on Phase Two of the Leamside.

 

Fingers crossed mate. High time that this part of the region got a bigger slice of the investment that Newcastle has simply taken as their own for far too long.

More power to your elbow.

 

In the early days of the metro my Dad was offered a big job with them (he was electrical foreman of Sunderland Busways at the time). He turned it down as he didn’t want to uproot our family at the time. I remember him telling me that Sunderland was offered the metro test track first but turned it down after a handful of objections from a public enquiry. Newcastle snapped it up and the rest is history.

I would like to think with the building of the Crown Works studios it would coincide with further improvements in public transport links - metros, trains etc and finally after all the years that have passed Sunderland will finally be on the map. A hell of a long way to go but hopefully the improvements seen over the last few years continue from strength to strength

 

I heard similar and the metro centre was talked about. Some Sunderland people are their own worst enemies, I remember comments about the new road bridge saying we don't want iconic type bridge just a bog standard road bridge would do, let them up the road have the Fancy bridges, that was said in the Echo.