Dunston railway station


Dunston is a station on the Tyne Valley Line, serving the Dunston area of Gateshead. Services are currently provided by Northern Trains, who also manage the station.
The station originally opened in January 1909, and was situated on a section of line built by the North Eastern Railway, to link the lines over the newly commissioned King Edward VII Bridge with the original 1837 Newcastle & Carlisle Railway freight route to Redheugh and the Dunston coal staithes.
It was originally known as Dunston-on-Tyne, and served as the terminus of a shuttle service from Newcastle. This service ended on in May 1926, as a result of the General Strike of 1926, and the station was closed.
It was very briefly brought back into use for special evacuation trains during World War II, but remained closed throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
In October 1982, trains were routed through Dunston, due to the closure of Scotswood Bridge, and the station was officially re-opened by British Rail on 1 October 1984.
Initially, most services on the Tyne Valley Line services called at Dunston. Service frequency was later reduced, due to low passenger numbers, particularly following the opening of Metrocentre in August 1987.

Facilities

The station is unmanned, and only has basic amenities, including a single waiting shelter on the island platform, timetable poster boards and a customer help point at the station entrance. There are no ticketing facilities at the station, therefore tickets must be bought in advance or on the train. Step-free access is available by means of an inclined ramp from the station entrance on Ellison Road.

Services

Prior to the December 2013 timetable change, the station was served by four daily services, with no service running from the station on a Sunday. Two operated in the direction of Newcastle, and a further two in the direction of Metrocentre.
The timetable change in December 2013 brought about significant improvements, with the station seeing its best level of service since the late 1980s. An hourly service operated daily between Newcastle and Metrocentre.
As of the December 2019 timetable change, Northern Trains operate an hourly service between Hexham and Nunthorpe, with additional trains also calling at the station during the morning and evening peak. On a Sunday, an hourly service operates between Metrocentre and Newcastle, with a two-hourly service continuing to Morpeth.