Platforms for Darlington and a bus station for Bishop Auckland

Thursday 18th June 2026

It was interesting to visit Darlington and Bishop Auckland last week and take a look at new public transport infrastructure which opened in both towns last month.

First up let’s look at the multi-million pound project that’s seen a major expansion of Darlington’s historic railway station.

It’s been described as a “transformational project” and indeed, at £140 million you’d rightly expect bells, whistles and gold plating for what is basically a new eastern entrance and concourse together with a new island platform – one side for terminating services from further east (Saltburn and Middlesbrough) and one side for southbound services on the East Coast Main Line and, of course in a world of supposedly encouraging “seamless integrated public transport”, not forgetting a huge 650 space multi storey car park.

The sheer scale of the new development has to be seen to be believed. Bells, whistles and gold plating are to be found in abundance.

During my visit it just seemed out of all proportion to the number of passengers passing through which may, of course, reflect it being early days and passenger habits not yet changed, but it’s of Elizabeth line proportions in terms of size and scale but without Elizabeth line numbers of passengers.

Just look at the entrance area as seen below as an example, with ample seating for the one passenger sitting and watching the departure boards as I passed through.

It was last Wednesday at around 15:30 and the whole place was like the proverbial ‘morgue’. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Not only that but what I thought was the main reason for the whole project – adding two new platforms on the eastern side of the East Coast Main Line’s tracks so trains don’t cause a conflict with each other when either calling in the southbound direction, or crossing the tracks from the east to terminate at the station – was rendered completely wasted by, for an unknown reason, every southbound train being directed to (the original) platform 1 and (the new) platform 5 remaining unused.

I watched as southbound train after southbound train was originally announced as departing from (the new) platform 5 but about 20 minutes before the train was due came the “this is a platform alteration” announcement and it was reallocated to (the original) platform 1 rendering (the new) platform 5 completely redundant as can be seen in this extract from realtimetrains for the period concerned. And timekeeping remained pretty good.

Thankfully, it would seem (the new) platform 5 has been used on other occasions and I can only conclude there must have been signalling issues or something like that, but even so, it is just five trains an hour – two LNER to King’s Cross, one TPE to Liverpool and a Cross Country to Plymouth as well as one Northern train an hour… which brings me to platform 6.

The so called benefit of having (the new) platform 6, which sits alongside (the new) platform 5, and has a buffer stop for terminating trains, is in fact only half useful as every other train from the Middlesbrough direction is a through train to Bishop Auckland so has to continue the former process of crossing the East Coast Main Line tracks to get to the western side and access the branch to Bishop Aukland. And the same in reverse, when the trains continue to use (the original) platform 1 when arriving from Bishop Auckland and travelling towards Middlesbrough.

As you can see from the timetables above and below, it’s only every other train from Saltburn/Middlesbrough that terminates in Darlington (once an hour) and now uses (the new) platform 6 rather than cross over the southbound main line to access (the original) platforms 2 and 3.

£140 million for that strikes me as somewhat rather hard to justify – I’d love to have seen the business case for it.

Granted it’s also funded a huge multi-storey car park, a massive new entrance, a vast cavernous waiting area, long corridor, escalators and a huge waiting room on the first floor.

But quite where all the passengers are going to come from to use this new area is beyond me.

Come with me as I alighted from the train from Bishop Aukland which used (the original) platform 1…

… and I turned round to look north and began my exploration of the “transformational project” spotting the new orange coloured footbridge and the new stairs leading up to it on the left of the above photo and in the one below…

… and alongside to the left are two new escalators…

… and lifts to take me to the new entrance/exit on the eastern side of the tracks.

The stairs/escalators/lifts bring you to that footbridge…

… which crosses over (the original) plaform 1, where looking south, the train I just alighted from was still there…

… and then you cross over the two tracks that have always by-passed the station (of which there are now more trains with the fast LNER London-Edinburghs – as well as Lumo) …. looking north (below) …

… and looking south (below) where you can see (the new) platform 5 to the left…

…and, to the left of that, (the new) adjacent platform 6 with its buffer stop.

At the end of the footbridge comes a new escalator and lifts to take you down to ground level again…

… but before doing so you’ll spot the new waiting room at first floor level in the background of the above photo which is well worth popping your head round the door to take a look at to see just how vast (and empty) it is…

… and then at the bottom of the escalator there are new toilets…

… and a retail unit soon to open…

… and then comes the long corridor along one side of the multi-storey car park and the new gateline…

…there’s a ticket machine here too…

…then at the end of the corridor, you turn right into the cavernous new entrance/exit area…

… where there’s a small window with a ticket office hidden behind a pillar with a member of staff twiddling her thumbs…

… and another retail outlet to open soon (good luck Greggs).

Outside there’s a public realm type manicured area to enjoy and the entrance/exit to the multi-storey car park. Arriva’s route 13B runs past every 20 minutes immediately outside and other routes in Yarn Road are a short walk away which does give improved access for bus passengers – but only when travelling south on the train as when travelling north (or returning from the south) passengers still have to wend their way along that long corridor, over the footbridge and down again to access, or egress from, platform 4.

And, I should also point out after all that expenditure there are no escalators to new platforms 5 and 6; only lifts and four sections of stairs to negotiate. It seems odd that there are escalators from the original platforms but not the new ones. However, there is yet another waiting area on the platform/s.

Let’s take a look at the nearby (12 miles west) Bishop Auckland new bus station which also opened last month at a cost of £11.8 million primarily funded by £6.4 million from the UK Government’s Future High Streets Fund and Durham County Council chipping in £3.6 million as well as Tees Valley Combined Authority.

It’s located on the same site as the town’s former bus station in Saddler Street together with extensive landscaping and improved public realm in the adjacent area.

It’s drawn a mixed reaction from passengers with online comments questioning the value of almost £12 million being spent when the previous arrangement of shelters alongside each bus stop, some say, was adequate for the needs. Here’s how it used to look, taken from Google Streetview in 2023.

As you can see it’s been quite a transformation and has undoubtedly significantly improved the waiting environment for passengers as well as providing toilets…

… albeit you need to have a 20p coin to be able to use them.

There’s much improved information provision too with departure lists on each of the eight stands…

… as well as an electronic sign above the doors showing the next four departures…

… and wall mounted signs listing even more above the corridor to the toilets and alongside an as yet unlet retail unit.

There’s a tactile display showing what’s on offer…

… and two pedestrians exits and entrances…

… and some landscaping.

What came across to me more than anything, as with the Darlington experience, is just how quiet the bus station was – at around 14:00 on a Wednesday.

Quiet as in the number of departing buses but more worryingly the number of passengers.

It was not quite as ‘morgue like’ as Darlington, but not far off.

It’s good to see investment in improved public transport infrastructure but I came away from both these visits wondering whether £152 million has really been well spent.

Roger French

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