Tees Valley Mayor promises new railway station for Teeside airport

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has committed £20million to build a new “fit-for-purpose” railway station at Teesside International Airport, funded he says from the £1billion of new money allocated to Tees Valley following the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2.

The project to upgrade what is currently one of the country’s least used railway stations is part of the Mayor’s Transport package which will be taken to Tees Valley Combined Authority cabinet for approval later this month.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said, “It is no secret that our airport suffered serious neglect under the stewardship of the previous owners and it was always going to take some time to turn things around.

“In the past few years, we have saved the airport from closure, invested in our terminal which has helped us attract amazing holiday flights to Alicante, Faro, and Corfu to name just a few. These improvements have also allowed us to provide a level of service to our passengers which has seen us win two national awards.

“We are ahead of schedule on our plan to turn things around, and the next phase of development following the opening of our business park and cargo facility, will see us build a new station at the airport.

“As a serious airport we need a working rail link that passengers can use to get to the airport, and with the current state of the train station this is simply not possible.

“This investment is another step towards making our fantastic local airport sustainable for the long-term and is only possible following the £1billion we received from government following the cancellation of the Manchester leg of HS2.”