Northallerton to Eaglescliffe Line

Northallerton–Eaglescliffe line
Special train in Yarm station, 2003
Overview
System	National Rail
Locale	North Yorkshire Yorkshire and the Humber North East England
Operation
Opened	2 June 1852
Owner	National Rail
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)

The Northallerton–Eaglescliffe line runs between the towns of Northallerton and Eaglescliffe. It connects the East Coast Main Line to the Tees Valley Line. It was built by the Leeds Northern Railway as part of their main line from Leeds to (via Harrogate and Ripon) which opened on 2 June 1852, although the connection to the ECML at the Northallerton end was not opened for a further four years.

The only current stations on the line are:

A number of old stations that used to serve towns and villages on the line were closed between 1954 and the end of local passenger services over the route on 6 September 1965, with those at Picton, Yarm and Brompton being the last to go. The station at Yarm was subsequently reopened by Regional Railways North East in February 1996.

Services are run by TransPennine Express between Manchester Airport and Middlesbrough (and to Newcastle using the Durham Coast Line during diversions - it usually travels via Darlington and Durham on the East Coast Main Line). Services are roughly hourly and call at all stations as part of the North TransPennine route.

The line is also part of the Grand Central route between Sunderland and London King's Cross and sees use by a variety of heavy freight services to/from Teesside, including petroleum from Port Clarence, steel trains to and from Hartlepool, Scunthorpe and Aldwarke, the Freightliner terminal at Teesport and waste traffic to Wilton EFW.