Hopes raised for Gateshead Interchange as NECA sets out transport priorities
A Local Transport Plan will head to public consultation, after September’s cabinet meeting of the North East Combined Authority considered draft proposals for numerous interventions, including the £34m interchange scheme.
At present the Gateshead Interchange project is inked in for 2032 completion,
The scope of the project includes the demolition of the whole interchange site and the redevelopment of a bus station on a smaller footprint, redesigned to address safety and security limitations.
It will also include new retail, office and accommodation space, reconfiguration of the Metro station to make better use of the space, and would involve better integration between public transport and the retail offer.
It’s a project that has the backing of the town’s new MP Mark Ferguson, who spoke out last week in media interviews and on his X account about how “for too long Gateshead has had to put up with public transport that doesn’t meet our needs”
The town centre bus and Metro interchange is used by 9m people a year. Another key Gateshead project is the addition of a new railway station that would serve Gateshead town centre and the Quayside, where a further events space is due to be developed.
NECA is looking to put to work the funding provided by its two devolution agreements, the first from 2023 and the ‘deeper devolution’ deal signed in March this year, that will give the North East greater control and responsibility in key areas.
There are a vast number of projects across heavy rail, Metro, bus, ferry and active travel planned out for the coming years across the region. As the report for cabinet maps out, on top of funds already secured through competitive bidding, NECA will have access to “further substantial funding” through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. This includes:
- A first CRSTS settlement totalling £563m of capital funds over 2024- 2027.
- Local Transport Funding for investment in County Durham totalling £72.8m over 2025-2027.
- A CRSTS revenue grant of £11.36m to support capital delivery.
- A second CRSTS settlement which indicatively stands at £1.85bn over the period 2028 – 2032 inclusive of capital and revenue funds
Further to the above funding provided by CRSTS, through the Deeper Devolution Deal, government has committed to moving the
region towards a single funding settlement for transport.
The report to cabinet said: “At a minimum there is an expectation that the funding associated with a single settlement would exceed the second CRSTS settlement in scale. We believe this to be a proportional and affordable share of national transport funding which should be allocated to our region from Government in the period from 2032 to 2040.”
