The Anonymous Widower

Darlington Station – 26th June 2025

I visited Darlington station, three times on my trip.

These pictures are in chronological order.

Note.

1. The station is being given a major upgrade, so it can handle more trains.
2. The station has a large number of top-quality Victorian features.
3. The station is Grade II* Listed.
4. Inside the enormous train-shed are two long platforms, that handle most of the trains and two South-facing bay platforms.
5. Two new platforms, which are numbered 5 & 6,  and possibly a double-track avoiding line are being added outside the train-shed on the East side.
6. In images with a comment saying Note Platform 5, the new long electrified Platform 5 can be seen.
7. Platform 5 appears to be already electrified at its Southern end.

These three OpenRailwayMaps shows the future layout.

The first OpenRailwayMap shows the junction, where the branch to Newton Aycliffe, Shildon and Bishop Auckland connects.

Note.

1. The red tracks are electrified and indicate the East Coast Main Line.
2. The track curving off to the North-West is the Bishop Auckland Branch.
3. The black tracks are not-electrified.
4. The Bishop Auckland Branch is shown dotted black and red, as it will be electrified, so that Hitachi can get their new trains to the East Coast Main Line.
5. The two tracks of the East Coast Main Line are very straight and the map shows them to have a 125 mph operating speed.

The second OpenRailwayMap, shows the lines immediately to the South of Darlington station.

Note.

1. The red tracks are electrified.
2. The black tracks are not electrified.
3. Tracks are number 4, 3, 2 and 1 from the West.
4. The Southern ends of Platforms 1 and 4, and Platforms 2 and 3, which are inside the current train-shed appear to be virtually unchanged.
5. Platform 1 is electrified and will probably still cater for Southbound trains.
6. Platforms 2 and 3 are bay platforms without electrification for trains terminating at Darlington.
7. Platform 4 is electrified and will probably still cater for Northbound trains.
8. There is an electrified avoiding line to the East of Platform 1.
9. The brick wall of the current train shed is in the white space to the East of Platform 1.
10. Outside the current train shed are two electrified 125 mph lines, an electrified through platform and a South-facing bay platform without electrification.
11. The  new electrified platform looks very long. Could it be long enough to handle a pair of High Speed Two Classic-Compatible trains? I suspect though it is long enough to handle the splitting and joining of a pair of five-car Hitachi Class 80x trains.
12. The new bay platform looks longer that the current bay platforms 2 & 3. Is it long enough to handle a five-car Hitachi Class 80x train?
13. It does appear from the track layout, that the new electrified platform is connected to the East Coast Main Line, the Saltburn branch and stabling sidings to the North of the station.
14. The new bay platform appears to be connected to the Saltburn branch.

The two new platforms also appear to be adjacent to an area of the station, which is labelled Darlington Station Gateway East. I would assume, that this proximity will be used to make the station easy for changing trains.

The third OpenRailwayMap shows the section of the station between the two previous maps.

Note.

1. The red tracks are electrified.
2. The black tracks are not-electrified.
3. The Darlington end of the Bishop Auckland Branch is shown dotted black and red, as it will be electrified, so that Hitachi can get their trains to and from the East Coast Main Line.
4. Both Platforms 1 and 4 appear to connect to the East Coast Main Line, so high speed services can operate as they do now, by taking a diversion through the current Darlington station.
5. To the East of the East Coast Main Line, there appear to be some very useful stabling sidings.

I have some general thoughts about Darlington station.

Will Trains Not Stopping At Darlington Station Use The New 125 mph Lines Through the Station?

It does appear that the two 125 mph lines through the new part of the station are very straight.

• They are shown as 125 mph, but could be faster.
• It should be remembered that according to Wikipedia, British Rail built the Selby Diversion for 160 mph in 1983.
• Between Durham and York stations is 66.2 miles of mainly 125 mph railway.

I believe that cutting out the need for trains to slow to go through Darlington station could save several minutes.

Will Trains Stopping At Darlington Station Use The Current Platforms 1 And 4 As They Do Now?

The track layout would seem to allow this and those changing to another train, would not have to walk a long way.

Can Trains Stopping At Darlington Station Use The New Eastern Platforms?

I have examined the second and third maps in detail and it looks as if the track layout will allow trains on the East Coast Main Line in both directions to stop at the long electrified platform.

The shorter bay platform appears to be only connected to the Tees Valley Line to Middlesbrough and Saltburn.

How Long Are The New Eastern Platforms?

Estimating against the scale on the map, I reckon these are the likely lengths.

• Long electrified platform – 400 metres – Appears to be numbered 5
• Bay platform – 200 metres – Appears to be numbered 6.

These are very useful lengths.

An Aerial View Of The New Platforms

This image from Tees Valley Combined Authority shows the Northern ends of the new platforms and the new footbridge.

Note.

1. The original four-platform Victorian station is on the right, which is the Western side.
2. The East wall of the Victorian train shed can be clearly seen.
3. The two absolutely straight 125 mph lines, that allow trains to bypass the original station are closest to the wall.
4. The long electrified platform, which appears to be numbered 5, also appears to be absolutely straight.
5. The unelectrified bay platform, which appears to be numbered 6, is to the left.
6. Platforms 5 and 6 would seem to be separated by a wide island platform, which would make interchange easy.

This page on the Network Rail web site, gives more information.

Car Parking At Darlington Station

This image from Tees Valley Combined Authority shows the Northern end of the station.

Note.

1. The three sections of the Victorian station.
2. The two new platforms ; 5 and 6 at the top of the image.
3. The two 125 mph lines bypassing the Victorian station.
4. There are two new footbridges connecting the Victorian station to the land on the other side of the 125 mph lines.

To the left of the station, there appears to be a massive multi-story car-park.

I asked Google about the new car park at Darlington station and got this reply.

The new multi-story car park at Darlington Station will have a capacity of more than 650 vehicles. This is part of a larger £140 million redevelopment of the station, which also includes new platforms and an eastern concourse. The car park will include accessible parking bays and electric car charging points.

This image from Tees Valley Combined Authority shows the car parking from the South.

Note.

1. The building appears to be a five-story car park.
2. There appears to be a very easy connection between the car park and the bridge to the station.
3. From the roof layout, there appears to be several lifts.
4. It looks like there will be a large area between the platforms and the car park, where travellers can meet and socialise.
5. The bay platform 6 already has a pair of red buffer stops.

Railways may have come to Darlington two hundred years ago and it looks like they are getting the car parking at the station ready for at least the next two hundred.

Further Electrification

If as I expect, the UK embraces battery electric technology for local and regional trains, I can see the three South-facing bay-platforms being electrified, so they could charge he battery-electric trains.

This picture shows that bars have been placed across Platforms 2 and 3, that could be used to support the electrification.

This method has been used in Victorian stations in the UK before. I show some installations and discuss electrifying Victorian stations in Could Hull Station Be Electrified?.

Darlington Station And High Speed Two

This graphic shows the original service pattern for High Speed Two.

Note.

1. There are seventeen paths terminating in the South at Euston station.
2. Six of these paths go to Leeds, Newcastle or York.
3. As the Eastern leg has been abandoned, that means there will be no High Speed Two trains to Leeds HS2, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle via the East Coast Main Line.

Darlington was to be served by these hourly services.

• Train 17 – Birmingham Curzon Street and Newcastle via East Midlands Hub, York, Darlington and Durham.
• Train 23 – London and Newcastle via York and Darlington.

Both trains would have been a single 200 metre long High Speed Two Classic-Compatible train.

Joining And Splitting Trains At Darlington

As Platform 5 looks like it would be a 400 metre long platform, it would look like it would be possible to handle a pair of High Speed Two Classic-Compatible trains.

But these trains will not now be serving Darlington in the near future, as the Eastern leg of High Speed Two has been cancelled.

A pair of nine-car Class 801 trains would be 467.4 metres long and might be able to fit into Platform 5.

But a pair of seven-car trains would certainly fit into a 400 metre Platform 5.

In Do Class 800/801/802 Trains Use Batteries For Regenerative Braking?, I found this snippet in an Hitachi document.

To simplify the rearrangement and management of train configurations, functions are provided for identifying the train (Class 800/801), for automatically determining the cars in the trainset and its total length, and for coupling and uncoupling up to 12 cars in
normal and 24 cars in rescue or emergency mode.

So I suspect with software updates two nine-car trains could run together.

Suppose LNER wanted to attack the airlines on the London and Scottish route.

• Two seven- or nine-car Class 800 or 801 trains would leave Edinburgh working as a pair.
• First stop would be Platform 5 in Darlington.
• The trains would split in Darlington.
• One train would go to King’s Cross stopping at perhaps Doncaster and Peterborough.
• The other train would go to St. Pancras stopping at perhaps Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Bedford.

Note.

1. A seven-car Azuma would be under 200 metres long.
2. Seven-car trains would fit in St. Pancras.
3. LNER have run an Azuma train into St. Pancras.
4. The train would interchange with East-West Rail at Bedford.
5. Travellers to and from East Anglia would change at Peterborough.

Large areas of England would have a fast route to and from Scotland.

June 30, 2025 Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Architecture, Automatic Splitting And Joining Of Trains, Birmingham Curzon Street Station, CrossCountry Trains, Darlington Station, Durham Station, East Coast Main Line, East Midlands Hub Station, East-West Rail, High Speed Two, High Speed Two Classic-Compatible Trains, Leeds Station, LNER, Middlesbrough Station, Northern Trains, St. Pancras Station, Tees Valley Line, York Station | 1 Comment