Disused railway lines and closed stations in County Durham

386 miles of disused railway
119 closed stations
18 stations open today
101 named lost lines

County Durham has 386 miles of disused railway and 119 closed stations, against 18 stations still open today. More stations have closed here than remain: 6.6 lost for every one still served. The longest lost line is the Scotswood to Durham via Consett Line, with 18 miles of its route inside County Durham.

See County Durham’s lost railways on the map

The map opens on the county with the disused lines and closed stations drawn over today’s network. Tap any closed station for its history, or any grey line for its name.

What is left of it

The 386 miles of lost railway in County Durham break down as 292 miles with the track lifted and the trackbed still traceable, 74 miles built over or ploughed out, with little or no trace left, 20 miles with track still in place but no trains and 0.9 miles dismantled. These are OpenStreetMap’s own distinctions, made by the people who surveyed each stretch, so a line can appear under more than one state along its length.

Lost railway lines in County Durham

101 named lines with disused track in the county, longest stretch first. The mileage is the part inside County Durham; a line crossing the border is counted on both sides.

Line	Miles in county
Scotswood to Durham via Consett Line	18
Darlington & Tebay Branch	14
Bishop Auckland & Barnard Castle Branch	12
South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway	12
Stanhope and Tyne Railway	12
Leamside Line	11
Ferryhill and Hartlepool Line	11
Weatherhill and Rookhope Railway	9.9
Consett Branch	9.6
Stockton to Sunderland Line	5.9
Castle Eden Walkway	5.8
Simpasture Branch	5.8
Rookhope and Middlehope Railway	5.3
Darlington and Eastgate-In-Weardale Line	5.2
Billingham Beck Branch	4.5
Durham & Bishop Auckland Line	4.3
Haggerleases Branch	4.3
Tees Railway Walk	4.2
Stockton & Castle Eden Line	3.9
Tees Valley Branch	3.9
Brandon to Bishop Auckland Railway Path	3.7
Pontop and South Shields Branch	3.7
Tanfield Branch	3.7
Brusselton Branch	3.4
Ferryhill and Spennymoor	3.4
Rainton & Seaham Railway	3.4
Hawthorn Colliery Branch	3.2
Kelloe Bank Foot Branch	3.0
Weardale Railway	2.9
South Hetton Railway	2.8
Deerness Valley Railway	2.6
Murton and Durham Elvet Line	2.6
Bishop Auckland & Ferryhill Branch	2.5
Pontop & Jarrow Railway	2.3
Croxdale & Houghall Collieries Line	2.1
Consett Iron Works Railway	2.0
Merrybent Branch	2.0
Fighting Cocks Branch	1.9
Park End Quarry Line	1.9
Phoenix Branch	1.9

And 61 shorter stretches: Waterhouses Branch, South Hetton Railway (Pesspool Branch), Lintz Colliery Railway, Cassop Wagonway, Leamside Line Branch, Seal Sands Branch, Kelloe Line, Lumley Branch, Stanley Incline, Haverton Hill Branch, Binchester Colliery Railway, Framwellgate Moor Wagon Way, Hartlepool to West Hartlepool Branch, Ludworth Colliery Branch, Chilton Branch, Seabanks Branch, West Tees Colliery, Cliff House Branch, Hurworth Burn Way, Stockton North Shore Branch, Wellfield Curve, Woolly Hills Tramway, Woodford Branch Railway, Forcett Railway, Toddhill Branch, Waldridge Wagonway, Bishopley Branch, Littletown & Sherburn Hill Branch, Old Mine Tramway, Stockton Goods Branch, Bowden Close Railway, Bridge House Junction to Baxter Wood No 1 Line, Crow Trees Railway, Darlington and Saltburn Line, Isabella Railway, Shildon sidings, Carlton Loop, Harbour Wagonway, Leamside and Durham Line, Shotton Colliery Sidings, South Hetton Railway (Dobson's Branch), Woodland Branch Railway, Bishop Auckland to Barnard Castle Branch, Bishop Middleham Colliery, Burnhope Wagonway, Lumley Wagonway, Sacriston Wagonway, South Hetton Railway (Murton Branch), Tramway to Millfield Grange Colliery, Coxhoe Curve, Durham Goods (Belmont) Branch, Scutterhill Incline, Stooperdale Curve, Vane Tempest Colliery, Consett East Junction to Hownes Gill Junction Line, Groove Heads mine tramway, Hartburn West Curve, Londonderry Railway (South Hetton Branch), Pelton Colliery Incline, Sherburnhouse Bank and Sunniside Wagonway.

Closed railway stations in County Durham

All 119 closed and former stations in County Durham, A to Z. Each name opens the map on the station; the Wikipedia link, where there is one, has its history.

Stations still open in County Durham

18 stations in County Durham still have a train service. The busiest are Darlington (2.8 million a year), Durham (2.8 million a year), Hartlepool (713,672 a year), Thornaby (659,792 a year) and Chester-le-Street (232,324 a year). Every one has its own page, with the stations you can reach from it directly and how often the trains run: see the A to Z of stations.

Lost railways nearby

Tyne and Wear, North Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria.

About these figures

The disused lines are the stretches OpenStreetMap records as disused, abandoned, razed or dismantled railway, measured segment by segment and given to the county each segment lies in. The closed stations are Wikidata’s record of British railway stations no longer in service, kept where they are not within a few hundred metres of a station still open. County boundaries are today’s ceremonial counties, with unitary authorities folded into the county they sit in, from the Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0; contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2024). Historic county lines were different, and a closed station a mile over the border is on the neighbouring page.

Every county · About the disused lines layer · About the closed stations