The Green Line

Part of what I have been doing is transporting everything I have been doing into google earth format. So, without further ado....

The current green line: http://www.multiupload.com/3FUPR2Y6CQ
The new green line: http://www.multiupload.com/RXOEAQ24BH

Also following is a write up on the new green line which it seems I managed to get finished before the move. Station locations are inexact and this is all very rough- I haven't actually been to every place to measure it up and design a station, I'm no architect!
In addition to my past 'best design' I've also added a bit of a new crazy extension.

Ponteland: I’ve marked the station as following the course of the old railway line right into town with a station at the main street.
This doesn’t look like it is so central in the town, being very much towards the north end. However, though the main street isn’t at the geographic centre of the town, main streets in general do tend to have a role as the centre of town nonetheless.
Consider too that the south of Ponteland is the more upmarket Darras Hall and towards the north end seemed a more logical place, especially since this means we can actually get into the town and wouldn’t need a station on the outskirts.
Nonetheless I’ve never had cause to go to Ponteland and know little of the situation on the ground there. Perhaps there would be a better place for a station than where I placed it.

Airport: The airport station would likely need altering somewhat since as things stand the metro line runs into the dead end that is the airport itself. It would need to be placed on more of an angle so that the line can continue onto Ponteland.

From the airport onwards right down to Sunderland the green line follows its current route. Ponteland is the only addition on this side.

Rather than turning left towards Park Lane as it currently does my ideal green line would instead head south, along the Durham Coast Line. The reasons for this are
1: To serve southern Sunderland
2: The west Sunderland part of the network will have been taken over by the red line.
There could however be a situation with the red line not built but the green line is, under such a circumstance as this the green line would branch, with one line following the existing western route with the other going into the south of town.


Mowbray Road: The first station of the new extension would be an underground one, sited on Mowbray Road, before the line leaves the existing tunnel to Sunderland station.


Hendon: Formerly named Percy Terrace for the street I would place it on, I believe Hendon is a better name for this station, that being the part of town in which it would be placed.
As said I’d place it on Percy Terrace, perhaps around Fuller Street and Matanzas Street face each other across the railway line.

Grangetown: There seems to be plenty of space for a Grangetown Station. Ocean Road seems to be the best place for it.

Leechmere: Rather than being on the coast line a better place for the Leechmere station would seem to be as we turn off the coast line and onto new track. To the west of Ryhope Road is where it is placed on the map.

Ryhope: Rye View Road would seem to be a sensible and easy to access place for a station however placing one here would not be good for spacing, it would either be too close to Leechmere, or, if there were no Leechmere, too far from Grangetown.
The Ryhope station then is near the Ryhope golf course club house.
Ryhope Golf Club under my plan is in for a bit of trouble unfortunately. It consists of some wonderfully located open ground in the middle of Sunderland. Perhaps some land along the edges of the course could be taken from it, perhaps we would have to cut and cover or build the track and bury it. Either way I believe something could be worked out.

Tunstall: Leaving golf course vandalisation aside for a moment the track then turns south with the next stop being Tunstall. The most sensible place would seem to be on Eltham Road, towards the south west round about.
This is a very spacious area so placing this station should be no problem at all.

Mill Hill: There was a consideration to name this station Silksworth however the next station is also in the general area of Silksworth and on Silksworth Lane so that could be confusing.
Mill Hill seems to be a local name for this particular area and the station is on Mill Hill Road so that is what I went with.
For this station and the track leading to it, a fair number of allotments will have to be removed.

Gilley Law: As mentioned above this next station is on Silksworth Lane. It should be at the very top of the fields near the flats.
This station takes us a bit out of our way actually, curving northwards in the fields rather than sticking to the south and heading right for our end at Doxford Business Park. This diversion I believe is highly necessary however due to the large amount of people it brings closer to a station.

Farringdon: This next station is around the old Hetton Railway, on Silksworth Road at the far south west of the fields.
Despite the Farringdon name it is actually right on the Farringdon/Silksworth border- which is really all the more reason for not naming any stations Silksworth!

Doxford International: Originally I named this station East Herrington as that is the area where the park actually is, however I believe this name will be far more useful to people using the metro- more people, unfamiliar with the area, will be wanting to find the business park than East Herrington.
The station I would place towards the north east end of the park, before the round about is reached on city way.
The names ‘Doxford Business Park’ or just ‘Doxford’ were considered due to how confusing the name Doxford International sounds to me (is it an airport or something?) however Doxford International is the name the park uses and of the existing bus stops in the area so that is what I went with. Were this extension to go ahead there would no doubt be hours of agonising over what to actually call a station here.


This is the end of my realistic ‘easy’ extension to the green line (in actuality it is sadly anything but and would be hard enough to get through on its own). However, there is the option to continue the line further, and in an ideal world this would be done.
This extension takes the metro well out of Sunderland and towards the Houghton-Le-Spring area. This takes us across rather a lot of fields and to have every metro on the green line following the whole of the route would not be recommended at all, however to extend further would connect a rather big town into the network: Houghton-Le-Spring is apparently home to 36,000 people.

Newbottle: The first of the ‘exteme’ stations would be on Sunderland road at the far eastern edge of Newbottle.
Not an ideal placement however we are already going well out of town and want to get to Houghton-Le-Spring ASAP. This small diversion however gives some service to Newbottle without massively impeding our course.

Houghton-Le-Spring: The Houghton-Le-Spring station itself is somewhat more central than Newbottle, being located on Seaham Road, just south of the allotments.
Unfortunately this is not totally central, getting right into the middle of Houghton however would be very difficult to do cheaply considering how built up the town is, so this seems to be as close as we can sensibly get.

Hetton-Le-Hole: Being careful to round Copt Hill the track then heads south a bit more to the town of Hetton-Le-Hole. The final stop on even the more extreme green line (we could continue towards South Hetton or Murton but this would be getting very mad and bring us close to Seaham which already has a railway!)
This station would ideally be west of the quarry, again on the eastern fringe of the town, luckily however, Hetton’s main street (Market Street) is also towards the eastern end of town so this is actually a rather well located station.

South Sunderland

One proposal which has been suggested to extend the metro in the future is to Seaham south of Sunderland.
Now to me this doesn't seem to be the best of extensions; sure the track is already there but Seaham is rather out of the way and rather small being only 20,000 people and 10km south of Sunderland. After Seaham you would then have a similar distance to follow to the 30,000 population Peterlee and after that you've 20km or so until Hartlepool- a large town which is more associated with Teeside than Tyne and Wear.
This is really far far more territory for trains than the metro.

However. The route to Seaham would involve some rather good extensions long before it gets to its destination, it is only the final leg which is a bit pointless. To get to Seaham on the Durham Coast Line you must first pass through quite a large amount of southern Sunderland. Now this area needs connecting to the network!
Sunderland is a rather south heavy city and an extension of the metro service here would really increase use and drastically improve transportation in Sunderland.

I would suggest at the very least that the metro be extended down to Ryhope, this can be done using already existing lines.

Further than this however I would then suggest in a ideal situation the construction of some new metro track. Rather than heading south and out of the city to Seaham the line should instead head west, into the outer suburbs of Sunderland.

In an ideal world this would involve a lot of tunneling, hooking well north into densely built up areas before heading through Pennywell and then linking back up with South Hylton to give a nice 'Sunderland ring'. This though will never happen. Cost unfortunately is an object.

Instead I propose the following as shown on the image. This proposal would involve little or no tunneling yet still give metro service to the outer suburbs of Sunderland; an important note to add being that one area in which a metro really shows its advantages over busses is with long distances.

Mowbray Road-

The first of the new southern metro stations I would place as the railway track crosses the named road. Already we are getting towards a built up area.

Percy Road-

This one is really in the midst of a lot of housing.
My idea of where to place this would be at the end of Matanzas Street and Fuller Road with good access from both sides of the track however anywhere in that area could be a good potential location.

Grangetown-

A somewhat less built up area but nonetheless there is a lot of housing and it seems some shops (I am unsure what those white buildings by the line are, I've never been to the area in question).
Near to Ocean Road would be a wise place to put the station it seems.

Leechmere-

This station would be the last of those on the existing track before we loop westwards. This station is quite a distance from the houses unfortunately but it has good beach access!

Ryhope-

Rather than the south the north end of Ryhope is my chosen recipient of the next station, there being a plentiful gap of open ground between it and Leechmere.

Tunstall-

Yet again we go through a gap, this time a southbound one between Ryhope and Silksworth. The south east of Tunstall seems a wise spot for the next station before we head west again.

Mill Hill-

The one difficult part of this track lies here with a big patch of allotments lying between Silksworth and Doxford. Unfortunatly some of those would have to go with the location of the station somewhere towards their south east.

Silksworth Lane-

As good a place as any to stop next seems to be as we hook northwards on Silksworth Lane.

Giley Law-

After a lot of fields we then come to Giley Law. We need not head into it too much with a station on the north west of the fields.

Farringdon-

South south west of Giley Law is the next stop at Farringdon by Silksworth Road.

East Herrington-

The final stop of this extension I would place near the Doxford Buisness Park. Here we have a bit of a tight squeeze near the roads but still it seems there is space without demolishing any buildings.


And there we have it.
What should be done in southern Sunderland (or at least something roughly like it) rather than a Seaham extension.
This extension also sets us up well for serving the 10km south west Houghton-Le-Spring (35,000 people) and the surrounding area. Though this would be far more via park and ride or bus and metro combination than a actual extension; though again in an ideal world....