Tories Heralding Labour’s AB&T Line Reopening

 Changing its name to the Northumberland Line 

Doesn’t Change History

We at Murky find it very interesting that Northumberland Conservatives are heralding their contribution to the reopening of the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne line to passenger traffic so we thought we had better take a closer look at why as it may be purely political?

Their roll out which may include the possibility of a socially distanced visit from Grant Shapps the UK Minister for Transport. But with the County Council Tories in full civil war mode and the Local MP for Blyth Valley sitting with the Stuarts at the bottom of the hill on the battlefield without the opportunity for a U-turn the Government may make an excuse or two and either send a minion or simply send the cash to the holding organisation (NCC) in order to dodge the battlers as a simple look shows that this project also benefits Labour areas in Tyne and Wear to a similar level to that of Northumberland residents and the North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll is best placed to accept the Government and not the embattled County Council or Advance Northumberland considering the former Leadership of the County Council have tried to persuade ministers to place the Council in special measures so they can sack top staff and save their sullied reputations.

This is not a new project and progress has been halted by many Tory transport ministers it has been said on many occasions that the conversations by Labour Councillor Gordon Webb with the British Rail Board just after the coal industry in South East Northumberland was run down should have kickstarted this project to bring passenger trains back onto this very active goods line and link in with the Tyne and Wear Metro but Thatcher's ministers included ‘Onyerbike’ Norman Tebbit who saw the defiance of miners to save their livelihoods and feed their families as an attack on his and Margaret Thatcher's new freedoms and liberties for any employing companies his mantra being  "A person who declines to fall in with new conditions of employment which result from a collective agreement may well be considered to have brought about his own dismissal". Therefore the easing of the ability of Northumberland’s ex-miners and their families to find employment in the Tyne and Wear conurbation was halted in its tracks, (no pun intended).

Circumstances alter cases has been an accepted norm since the 17th century and this project sits fully within the halo of the quote. The growth in road traffic in the Tyne and Wear conurbation on in particular the main arterial roads into the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland has led both national and local politicians into looking at the revival of the AB&T line project. The problems that the linking of the A1 the A189 spine road and the A19’s convergence in the very south east border with Tyne and Wear, the pre-covid traffic jams on the A1 Western bypass also at the Moor Farm roundabout has led to the fear for drivers that pollution charges will be forced onto their wage packets. This fear has spilled out making projects like the AB&T line reopening essential for all.