Sunderland station

Sunderland is a station on both the National Rail and Tyne and Wear Metro network, serving Sunderland City Centre. The Tyne and Wear Metro has served Sunderland station since March 2002, following Metro's extension from Pelaw to Sunderland & South Hylton, with the original rail station opening in August 1879.

Sunderland
The 1965 British Rail Architects' Department station buildings in 2019
Location
Place	Sunderland
Local authority	City of Sunderland
Coordinates	54.906°N 1.382°W / 54.906; -1.382
Grid reference	NZ396569
Operations
Station code	SUN
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	4 (2 National Rail) (2 Tyne & Wear Metro)
DfT category	C2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	0.466[note 1][1] million
2015/16	0.475 million
2016/17	0.484 million
2017/18	0.448 million
2018/19	0.442 million
– Interchange	3,959
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Tyne & Wear (Nexus)
Zone	see Metro panel below
History
Original company	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
4 August 1879[2]	Opened as Sunderland Central
1965	Modernised station buildings opened
5 May 1969[2]	Renamed as Sunderland
2002	Conversions for heavy rail and Metro services
National Rail – UK railway stations
Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Sunderland from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Newcastle - Middlesbrough express in 1953

Both heavy rail and light rail services use the same platforms. Although the tracks are shared by light and heavy rail vehicles between Sunderland and Pelaw, Northern services between Sunderland and Newcastle pass through intermediate stations, with the Tyne and Wear Metro providing a stopping service.

The south end of Sunderland Station in 1965

Earlier stations

The first railway passenger services to Sunderland were provided by the Durham & Sunderland Railway Company in 1836, initially linking it to Hetton and Haswell.[3] The line approached from the south along the coast and the terminus was near South Dock, which was known as Town Moor station. The Durham & Sunderland Railway slowly extended their line towards the intended terminus in Durham though the eventual terminus, which opened in 1839, was at Shincliffe Town just outside the city[4] and it was not until the North Eastern Railway extended the line to Durham Elvet that this line finally reached Durham.[5]

Undistinguished either in architecture, convenience or accommodation it was replaced 22 years later by Hendon station, half a mile to the south, at a point where the line had to be joined by the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway Company's line to Penshaw and Durham (which had opened in 1853).[6]

In 1854 the Marquis of Londonderry opened the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway to link the existing Londonderry and South Hetton Collieries to the South Dock which, from 1855, carried passengers between Seaham Harbour and a terminus at Hendon Burn. Londonderry Railway services began to use Durham & Sunderland Railway's terminus in 1868.[4]

Meanwhile, the Newcastle & Darlington Company had built their station at Fawcett Street (opened in 1863[4]), just south of the site of the present station.

On 4 August 1879, the North Eastern Railway Company opened a line from Ryhope Grange Junction over the river to Monkwearmouth, and a new station was built on the present site[6] to the designs of architect William Peachey. Both of the other stations at Hendon and Fawcett Street were closed on the same date. The new station served passengers of both the North Eastern Railway and the independent Londonderry Railway until the latter sold its Seaham to Sunderland route to the former in 1900, allowing the North Eastern Railway to extend the line along the coast to create a new through route to West Hartlepool which opened in 1905.[4]

The current station, known as Sunderland Central at that time, was known locally as the New Station. Its platforms and lines lie in a cutting running north and south bounded by retaining walls to the east and west. Its single entrance and street-level buildings were at the North End, but a second entrance and associated buildings at the south were added five years later. The platform area was covered by an overall semi-elliptical arched-rib roof which together with the North End buildings, was badly damaged by bombs in 1943.[7]

In 1953, the old roof was replaced by umbrella-type roofing and the south end buildings were given an interim facelift, the complete rebuilding being deferred to enable advantage to be taken of the site's potential for property development and to ensure compatibility with the town's proposals for the redevelopment of this central area.

The new station was designed by H.N. Cameron, D. Mansbridge and M. Steeples[8] of the British Rail Architects' Department[9] under its chief architect Frederick Francis Charles Curtis. Complete rebuilding of the station was accomplished by November 1965.

Buildings

The current station buildings, which opened after re-building work in November 1965, formed at that time part of a complete rebuilding scheme which involved almost the entire area of the station site which was decked over and developed at street level.

The buildings covered the south end of the station area and a two-storey block of 20 shops, which were built by City and Central Shops Limited, occupies the central area. The old station buildings at the North End, which were retained in use until the new properties were being developed, were closed and demolished. In that area British Railways provided new premises for parcels traffic and Post Office Mails, which were redeveloped with the alterations to the platforms for Metro train services in 2002, and Littlewood's Mail Order Stores Limited (now occupied by Poundland), developed a four-storey department store with a main frontage on to High Street West.

In November 1965, following the withdrawal of local stopping train services on the lines to West Hartlepool, Durham and South Shields (due to the Beeching Axe), passenger trains were concentrated on one island platform with access to the concourse area by a dual 'one-direction' stairway. The second island platform was given over to the working of parcels traffic as a new parcels office premises was to be built at the North End and brought into use. Prior to this (certainly in 1962/3), the parcels traffic was being dealt with at the North End using the old stables block to the West for deliveries and a similar sized room at the East side for incoming parcels. Parcels traffic at the time included pigeon specials, heavy engineering parts, parcels to Europe, greyhounds to Ireland and the occasional corpse! There was also a parcels clerk at the Brian Mills Mail Order Depot.

Also at that time, the revised station working enabled the running lines and sidings at the south end of the station to be simplified. The consequent reduction in permanent way (i.e. railway track) released areas of land at track level which was available for the erection of support for further street level development between Athenaeum Street and Holmside bridges and also on the south side of Holmeside.

At the time that the modernised buildings opened from 4 November 1965, train services from Sunderland included a half hourly service each weekday to and from Newcastle, and an hourly service to and from West Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, with additional trains at peak periods. There were also then through morning trains to London and to Liverpool, and a sleeping car service to London every night of the week. Good connections were available from Newcastle with all parts of the country.

Refurbishment of the Station

Nexus, the operator of the Tyne & Wear Metro, announced a £7 million refurbishment of the 140-metre platform areas at Sunderland in 2006. The project was to be funded by the Department for Transport in an innovative scheme in which the money 'saved' by reducing a subsidised local Northern Trains service in favour of Metro was converted into a lump sum for capital investment. While Nexus does not own or manage the station (it is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern), it said it wanted to invest as the major operator. Work started on refurbishing Sunderland Station in January 2008.[10] An escalator is in place at the station which started working from December 2008.

The second stage of development in the station began in September 2009 and was completed in July 2010. Nexus appointed Sadler Brown Architecture to develop the design led by Arup Consulting Engineers which incorporated the work of three artists, Jason Bruges Studio, Julian Germain and Morag Morrison.

Jason Bruges Studio have created a 140-metre light wall with individual LED units containing an animated display. Julian Germain is providing a sequence of 41 photographs of everyday items 'lost' in a Metro environment, while Morag Morrison is designing coloured glass wall panels for buildings along the island platform.

The project also saw an entirely new floor, ceilings and lighting, substantial improvements to existing walls and a significant re-organisation of buildings and waiting areas on the platforms.

The modernisation of the station was featured in a 2012 Intel advert.

As of October 2015, it was announced that plans were being formulated for refurbishment of the upper concourse and exterior of Sunderland station to improve its image and access. Sunderland city council with its partners in the project Nexus and Network Rail said "We are currently finalising a detailed design solution with partners Network Rail and Nexus. In the meantime, we are working on options to secure some further funding to make the project happen, which will include improvements to the external space surrounding the station."[11]

On 20 September 2017 Sunderland Central MP Julie Elliott contacted Network Rail about the redevelopment of the above ground station, Plans for a £13.55million scheme to transform Sunderland's run-down city centre railway station were unveiled in 2012. Sunderland City Council and Nexus have already committed £7.25million to the project, leaving a funding gap of £6.1million. A joint working group has also been established to progress the scheme. Mrs Elliott MP has issued the communication to Network Rail in order to accelerate progress on the scheme.

Facilities

The station is on two levels, the ticket office is at street level and is staffed seven days a week. A fast food outlet and patisserie on the concourse offer refreshment facilities. A waiting room and seats are provided at platform level, with the two floors connected by lifts and escalators (the platforms are therefore fully accessible for wheelchair users). Train running information is offered via CIS displays, automated announcements and timetable posters.[12]

Layout

From 2002 when the station was remodelled to accommodate Metro services, the layout was, until 2018, unique in Great Britain. The station has a large central island platform with each side split into four numbered platforms. Northern services call at Platforms 1 and 4 at the northern end, while Platforms 2 and 3 at the southern end are for Metro services. Longer trains, such as Grand Central's 5-car class 180s and LNER's 5-car class 800/2 Azumas, straddle platforms 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 due to their length. Before the introduction of Azumas to LNER's Sunderland service, 2+9 car HST sets were used which, due to their length and signalling arrangements, would partially extend beyond the length of platform. Thus, cycles were conveyed within coach D's disabled areas, rather than in the dedicated space within the TGS coach, as far as Newcastle.

A similar layout now exists at Rotherham Central where Sheffield Supertram tram-train use low-height platforms 3 and 4 which are adjacent to full-height National Rail platforms 1 and 2, respectively.

Key to diagram

The track layout at Sunderland station

• Black lines: Track shared by Metro and mainline services, electrified at 1500 V DC overhead.
• Green lines: Track used by Metro services only, electrified at 1500 V DC overhead.
• Blue lines: Track used by mainline services only, not electrified.
• Grey area: covered station shed.
• Maroon area: Platforms.
• Platform 1: Northern services towards Hartlepool, Middlesbrough & Nunthorpe, and Grand Central services towards York & London King's Cross
• Platform 2: Tyne & Wear Metro services towards South Hylton
• Platform 3: Tyne & Wear Metro services towards Newcastle City Centre, Regent Centre & Newcastle Airport
• Platform 4: Northern services towards Newcastle, Metrocentre & Hexham
• A: Towards Newcastle
• B: From Newcastle
• C: From South Hylton
• D: To South Hylton
• E: Electrified siding
• F: Non-electrified siding
• G: From Middlesbrough
• H: Towards Middlesbrough

Tyne & Wear Metro

Sunderland
Tyne and Wear Metro
Metro train departing Sunderland towards South Hylton
Location
Place	Sunderland City Centre
Local authority	Sunderland
Fare zone information
Metro zone	C
Network One	4
Original zone	57
Station code	SUN
Usage
Metro Usage	0.77[13] million
History
Metro since	31 March 2002
List of stations

Sunderland is served by the Green Line (running from South Hylton & Sunderland to Newcastle City Centre, Regent Centre & Newcastle Airport).

This line runs up to every 12 minutes during the day (Monday to Saturday), and up to every 15 minutes in the evenings and on a Sunday.

To the south, services run to South Hylton along the alignment of the Sunderland to Durham mainline that fell victim to the Beeching cutbacks in May 1964. The first station is Park Lane, which provides a direct interchange with the bus and coach station. The line opened on 31 March 2002.[14]

Northbound, the first station is St. Peter's which is a couple of hundred yards south of the former Monkwearmouth station that was a museum from 1981 to 2017, when it then was sold to a private owner who then closed the museum and sold off the exhibits.

The track is shared with mainline trains as far as Pelaw Metro Junction, just south of Pelaw Metro station. The former mainline stations at Brockley Whins, East Boldon, Seaburn are now served only by the Metro. In addition new stations at Fellgate, the Stadium of Light, and St. Peter's were constructed.

On 12 December 2005, the Yellow and Green Lines of the Metro swapped between Pelaw & South Hylton and South Shields, meaning that there is a direct rail link between Sunderland and Newcastle Airport for the first time.

Mainline Services

Grand Central: North East & Yorkshire to London
Bradford Interchange Low Moor Halifax Brighouse Sunderland Mirfield Hartlepool Wakefield Kirkgate Eaglescliffe Northallerton Pontefract Monkhill Thirsk York Doncaster non-stop London King's Cross

Northern Trains Route 2: Durham Coast Line
Tyne Valley Line to Carlisle East Coast Main Line to London King's Cross Newcastle East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh Heworth Sunderland Seaham Horden Hartlepool Seaton Carew Billingham Stockton Tees Valley Line to Bishop Auckland Thornaby Middlesbrough Tees Valley Line to Saltburn Esk Valley Line to Whitby

Northern Trains Route 4: Tyne Valley Line
West Coast Main Line to Edinburgh & Glasgow Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Carlisle Cumbrian Coast Line to Barrow-in-Furness & West Coast Main Line to London Euston Settle to Carlisle Line Wetheral Brampton Haltwhistle Bardon Mill Haydon Bridge Hexham Corbridge Riding Mill Stocksfield Prudhoe Wylam Blaydon MetroCentre Dunston East Coast Main Line to London King's Cross Newcastle East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh Durham Coast Line to Middlesbrough

London North Eastern Railway routes
Inverness Aviemore Kingussie Pitlochry Perth Gleneagles Stirling Falkirk Grahamston Aberdeen Stonehaven Montrose Arbroath Dundee Leuchars Kirkcaldy Inverkeithing Glasgow Central Motherwell Haymarket Edinburgh Waverley Dunbar Berwick-upon-Tweed Alnmouth Morpeth Sunderland Newcastle Durham Darlington Northallerton York Leeds Skipton Keighley Bradford Forster Square Shipley Harrogate Horsforth Leeds Wakefield Westgate Hull Brough Selby Doncaster Retford Lincoln Newark North Gate Grantham Peterborough Stevenage London King's Cross

Northern generally run an hourly service daily (with some additional trains during weekday peak hours) from Hexham & Newcastle to Hartlepool, Middlesbrough & Nunthorpe. Some westbound trains continue through to Carlisle, with some eastbound trains continuing through to Whitby

Northern services are operated by Class 156 "Sprinter" and occasionally by Class 158 "Sprinter Express" sets, following the withdrawal of Class 142 "Pacers" at the end of 2019.

The service was cut from a half-hourly service on 12 December 2005, between Sunderland and Newcastle in both directions. The former Arriva Trains Northern service also called at Seaburn, East Boldon and Brockley Whins prior to March 2002, however this is now provided only by the Tyne and Wear Metro.

There was a TransPennine Express service to Liverpool Lime Street linking Sunderland to Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, York, Darlington and Durham. This service was operated by Northern Spirit and subsequently Arriva Trains Northern from 1998, but the change of franchise operator to First TransPennine Express in December 2004 has resulted in the end of these services, as these now either terminate at Newcastle or run through to Edinburgh Waverley.

In January 2006, open-access operator Grand Central was granted permission to run three trains per day from Sunderland to London Kings Cross via Hartlepool, Eaglescliffe (for Middlesbrough), Northallerton, Thirsk and York. Grand Central began running services on 18 December 2007 and now operates five times per day.[15]

On 14 December 2015, Virgin Train East Coast (VTEC) launched their new daily direct train service to London Kings Cross;[16] it is now operated by London North Eastern Railway.[17]

Future Developments

It is possible that the Leamside line may be re-opened. This starts at the Pelaw Junction on the Sunderland to Newcastle line and runs through to the Tursdale junction just north of Ferryhill, County Durham. The Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions has expressed concern at the delays in determining the future of this line.[18] The former Sunderland to Durham line joined this line approximately two miles west of the current Metro terminal at South Hylton, so any re-opening could also involve extension of the Metro.

When Virgin/Stagecoach were announced as the winners of the InterCity East Coast franchise in November 2014 their plans included a daily service from Sunderland to London Kings Cross which commenced in December 2015. A second return journey from Sunderland to London Kings Cross is expected to commence before 2020.[19]

The new Northern rail franchise agreement that started on 1 April 2016 includes plans to increase the frequency of services on the Middlesbrough–Sunderland–Newcastle route (and onwards to Carlisle) from the currently hourly frequency to every 30 minutes on weekdays from December 2017. Upgraded rolling stock will be used British Rail Class 142 trains are to be withdrawn by 2019), being replaced with refurbished Class 158. Some Northern services are also to run limited stop south of here.[20]

Electrification

The Tyne and Wear Metro uses overhead electrification at 1500 volts DC. This is incompatible with UK mainline electrification, which uses 25,000 volts AC.

Notes

1. The sharp decrease in numbers is due to the Tyne and Wear PTE infill Methodology. See reference attached.

References

1. "ORR Estimate of station usage" (PDF). ORR. ORR. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
2. Butt 1995, p. 223.
3. Body 1988, p. 163.
4. Sinclair, Neil T. (1985). Railways of Sunderland. Tyne and Wear County Council Museums. pp. 9, 10, 13, 14, 54 & 62. ISBN 0905974247.
5. "Sherburn House". Disused Stations. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
6. Body 1988, p. 164.
7. Body 1988, p. 165.
8. Lawrence, David (2018). British Rail Architecture 1948-97. Crecy Publishing Ltd. p. 117. ISBN 9780860936855.
9. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Williamson, Elizabeth (1983). The Buildings of England. County Durham. Yale University Press. p. 454. ISBN 9780300095999.
10. "Sunderland Station refurbishment".
11. "Sunderland railway station's £10m revamp is finally set to go ahead". Sunderland Echo. 8 October 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
12. "Sunderland station facilities". National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
13. "Tyne & Wear Metro usage figures". 2017–2018. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
14. "South Hylton". Disused Stations. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
15. Grand Central. "Extra Daily Service to and from London Kings Cross from December". Grand Central Trains (Press release). Retrieved 20 February 2014.
16. GB National Rail Timetable 2019-20, Table 26
17. Calder, Simon (24 June 2018). "East Coast Main Line returns to public owner ship after "total failure of privatisation"". The Independent. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
18. Railfuture. "Memorandum by Railfuture (NT 43)".
19. StageCoach Group (27 November 2014). "Stagecoach-Virgin Company Awarded Intercity East Coast Rail Franchise" (Press release).
20. "Northern Franchise Improvements". Department for Transport.

Sources

• Body, G. (1988). PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-072-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.

External links

• Metro times (Nexus)

• Train times and station information for Sunderland station from National Rail
• Annotated aerial view of Sunderland station
• News on the Nexus site about the station refurbishment project

Preceding station		Tyne and Wear Metro		Following station
St Peter's towards Airport		Green line		Park Lane towards South Hylton
National Rail
Terminus		London North Eastern Railway Sunderland-London		Newcastle
Hartlepool		Grand Central London-Sunderland		Terminus
Seaham		Northern Durham Coast Line		Heworth
	Historical railways
Ryhope East Line open, station closed		London and North Eastern Railway Durham Coast Line		Monkwearmouth Line open, station closed
Terminus		London and North Eastern Railway Sunderland-South Shields		Monkwearmouth Line open, station closed
Millfield Line and station open		London and North Eastern Railway Penshaw branch		Terminus
Ryhope Line and station closed		London and North Eastern Railway Durham to Sunderland Line		Terminus