Northumberland County Council receive full GRIP 2 Report from Network Rail, and seek internal approval to proceed to GRIP 3. GRIP 2 estimates re-opening costs at £191m, but this includes a 40% contingency for things like signalling upgrades which must be done whether passenger services are re-introduced or not. Excluding these, SENRUG estimates the true cost for re-introducing passenger trains is nearer to the £50m it has consistently estimated. The Council indicate they hope to commissioning the GRIP 3 by December 2016, the GRIP 4 by October 2018, start construction by February 2019 with trains running by 2021! SENRUG applauds this positive schedule but notes the GRIP 1 and 2 reports both took longer to commission and longer to complete than scheduled, and trusts further delays will be eliminated as the project gains momentum.
