Stockton and Darlington Railway: 200th Anniversary Festival

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the heritage festival of the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. This month we celebrate a pivotal moment in our history: the first steam-powered passenger train, which marked the birth of public rail travel as we know it and had a profound impact on the social, cultural and industrial heritage of Britain and countries around the world.

Two hundred years ago, on 26 September 1825, the world’s first passenger locomotive was put on the tracks outside the world’s first passenger train station: Aycliffe Lane, now Heighington station, in my constituency. Locomotion No. 1, designed by Newcastle engineer George Stephenson, was about to make history. On the following day, when the train left Shildon in the Bishop Auckland constituency, steam-hauled passenger railways began and passenger rail was born. More than 450 passengers in converted coal wagons passed through my hometown of Newton Aycliffe, then through Darlington, where the train was greeted by 10,000 people, before reaching the outskirts of Stockton around half past 3 in the afternoon. All modern railways, across the globe, trace their beginnings back to that journey and that incredible part of our heritage.

I want to set out, with enormous pride, the impact the event went on to have around the world; the way it transformed our society, culture and leisure time; and how we will celebrate the heritage of our groundbreaking railway with a major cultural festival this year. The contribution of that first journey was enormous. It endowed the north-east and our country with a rich heritage of innovation, inventiveness and ingenuity. It seems strange to think it now, but, because the Stockton and Darlington railway brought passenger rail into being for the first time, it led to the invention of many things that we have long taken for granted.

I cannot claim that the Stockton and Darlington railway went anywhere near my Carlisle constituency, but I cannot let this moment pass without celebrating Carlisle and north Cumbria’s role in the heritage of that line. Indeed, the engine that was first used on that marvellous line was Locomotion No. 1, created—as my hon. Friend says—by the Stephenson company. The company went on to create the iconic Stephenson’s Rocket, which, hon. Members might wish to know, finished its days in service on Lord Carlisle’s line in my constituency. I invite my hon. Friend to celebrate not only the glorious Stockton and Darlington line, but the inventiveness of our heritage in our railway industry.

I agree with my hon. Friend. She is a doughty champion for the city of Carlisle and has an astonishing knack of linking all subjects back to Carlisle’s rich heritage. We indeed celebrate its crucial contribution in this debate. Carlisle is lucky to have such a good advocate.

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. He is right to underline the heritage festival of the Stockton and Darlington railway. When he mentions what he is celebrating in his constituency, I think of my constituency, where we have a great culture and heritage that started in 1606 with a market town. Does the hon. Member agree that it is important that we celebrate the individual culture and heritage of local areas and communities, understanding that someone who does not know where they come from can never know where they are going?

The hon. Member is absolutely right that it is only by understanding the rich social and cultural heritage across our United Kingdom that we can look properly at and understand the future. I understand he is also a doughty champion for his constituency, from time to time.

The Stockton and Darlington railway made a great difference. The world’s first railway carriage—quite rightly called “Experiment”—was brought into being. Thankfully, railway companies have slightly upgraded their carriages since the coal wagons were used. Station waiting rooms had to be invented because passengers did not want to wait in the rain; without their invention, David Lean could never have filmed “Brief Encounter”. Railway bridges such as Skerne bridge in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy), which is the oldest continuously used railway bridge in the world; signalling systems; railway pubs including one where passengers’ pints were pulled by the first woman to work for a railway company, Mary Simpson; and of course iron tracks fixed to railway sleepers to a set gauge—they all had to be invented for the first time by the railway. Each of those elements of travel, used around the globe, traces its evolution to this extraordinary piece of history.

This could not have just happened anywhere; it could only have happened in the north-east. Our region had the key ingredients for this railway revolution: coal under our feet to power the engines; world-leading inventors and engineers, such as George Stephenson and his son Robert, who spent 10 years experimenting with tracks, locomotives and all the parts that make up the railway; and dynamic entrepreneurs, such as local Quaker Edward Pease, whose investment in this groundbreaking technology was critical to its success.

It is difficult to overstate how important that first journey was. Most importantly, it was proof of concept. It showed that rail travel could work for passengers, not just goods, and by connecting people, raw materials, markets and ports it helped unleash the industrial revolution as never before. It also changed how we all live. Changing the way people were connected to each other fundamentally altered Britain socially, culturally and economically. It had a huge impact on all aspects of our lives.

I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate. I am not going to impose a time limit, but I am going to call the Front-Bench speakers to respond to the debate from 5.10 pm. With half an hour, the four people standing can work out how much time they have.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) for introducing the debate so well, and for bringing alive the past 200 years of the railway.

Since steam filled the air on 27 September 1825, as the first passenger rail between Stockton and Darlington ran on that line, rail has transformed the world. It has transformed the economy, our society and livelihoods—lives and leisure—and all that was to follow captured the global imagination. To mark its 150th anniversary, in 1975, the National Railway Museum opened in my city of York: a national museum outside London, fought for by Jennie Lee, the Labour Minister at the time.

In parallel to the museum’s 50th anniversary celebrations, we in York will also be opening the station hall on 26 September. I welcome visitors old and new to see the improvements, the new interpretation in the gallery and the new gallery roof. I thank the Labour Government for all that they have done to support the National Railway Museum. New artefacts, such as the wreath that adorned Queen Victoria’s funeral locomotive, will be on display. There will also be a beautifully restored WHSmith book stall kiosk from Waterloo station, which I am really looking forward to seeing, as my grandfather started his working life selling newspapers at the WHSmith at North Shields station. The old favourite royal trains will also return in their full glory.

I am sure that visitors will want to flock to the National Railway Museum to join the celebrations on the celebratory weekend—on their way, of course, to Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. The National Railway Museum’s sister museum, Locomotion, in Shildon, the world’s first railway town, will also be part of the commemorations. Locomotion will hit its 21st birthday at the same time, and will host the Inspiration train. For those yet to make it to these parts, the Railway 200 Inspiration train will be their destination. It will be travelling throughout the country, led in partnership by the National Railway Museum, as its carriages tell our story of the history of rail, engage all in science with its mobile Wonderlab and spark a flame for people to consider a career on our great railways.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) on securing this wonderful debate. I hope, Mr Stringer, that you will indulge a speech that not only celebrates our transport heritage but takes a look at our transport future.

Some 200 years ago, on 27 September 1825, a small steam locomotive named Locomotion No.1 set off from Shildon, went through Darlington and reached Stockton-on-Tees. What seemed an eccentric experiment at first became the spark that ignited the modern world. That line—the Stockton and Darlington railway—was the first public railway to carry passengers and freight by steam. That journey began on the banks of the Tees; it transformed not only Britain, but every corner of the globe. In a few years the line reached the mouth of the Tees, and within a generation a small farmstead called Middlesbrough, with a population of 25 people, became an industrial giant—“the infant Hercules”, as Gladstone called it.

The town’s first passenger station opened in 1846 and the present station, dating from 1877, has now been restored, its undercroft part of a new heritage quarter. From the 1880s came the great goods yards and sidings: Middlesbrough goods yard, the dockside yards, the Eston and South Bank sidings feeding the furnaces; then South Bank yard, Cargo Fleet sidings and finally Tees yard in Thornaby—the great marshalling hub for Teesside freight.

Here, rail was never just about moving people; it fuelled an industrial revolution. Durham coal fed the network—carried to Stockton and Middlesbrough to power London’s homes, factories and ships. As iron and steelworks rose at South Tees, Middlesbrough and Redcar, the railway was their lifeblood. Rails, bridges, engines, ships—the very fabric of the modern world—were forged there and carried by train from that spot. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is no longer in his place, having woven Northern Ireland into the debate, was absolutely right: people have to know their own heritage. What I have described brought about the immigration of thousands and thousands of people from Ireland, who came to work in those industries.

It is always great to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this wonderful and very important debate, for which I must thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland), who secured it. We have heard some great speeches already.

The Stockton and Darlington railway is an incredible part of our regional transport history. As we have heard, it was the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives. I am thrilled that we are now celebrating 200 years since its first public journey. The international heritage festival taking place across County Durham and Tees Valley is an excellent opportunity to display our region’s contribution not just to the country, but worldwide.

This summer, Derby celebrated Railway 200 in style, bringing 40,000 people together in just three days to mark the Greatest Gathering, which was the largest collection of new and heritage railway stock ever assembled anywhere in the world and included Locomotion No. 1. From Darlington to Derby, will my hon. Friend acknowledge our incredible volunteers who are working hard in every part of the United Kingdom to mark Railway 200? It has been a roaring success so far, and I am sure it will be for the rest of the year. Does she agree that the celebrations are not just looking at the past, but inspiring the next generation to carry on our great railway heritage into the future?

I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent intervention. He raised very important points. Yes, while looking to the past, it is important to look to the future. He spoke also about the importance of volunteers in our heritage railways across the country. Without those volunteers, those railways would be long gone. He made a very important point in mentioning the volunteers.

Last year in Great Britain, surface rail alone accounted for 9,848—just under 10,000—miles of track and more than 1.6 billion passenger rail journeys, showing its continued significance nationwide. The Government understand the importance of our railways, and they are working harder to create more journeys and to reduce delays. I support their plans to bring our railways finally back into public ownership.

I would like to mention my own constituency of Washington and Gateshead South, which is home to the Bowes railway, which opened just four short months later on 17 January 1826. It will be celebrating its bicentennial next year. The earliest section of the Bowes railway was designed by George Stephenson, who, as we know, also helped to design the Stockton and Darlington railway. The Bowes railway is the world’s only operational preserved standard-gauge cable railway system, which used stationary steam engines and gravity to move coal wagons from the pits in Durham to the River Tyne. It is still there to this day, as the Bowes Railway Museum is proudly in Springwell village in my constituency.

I also want to take this opportunity to discuss the Leamside line—you didn’t think you were going to get away without me mentioning that one, did you, Mr Stringer? It begins at Ferryhill in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor and passes through Washington, on to Gateshead and South Tyneside to Pelaw. The first section of the Leamside line opened in 1838 and served our communities until it was closed to passengers in 1964, under the Beeching cuts. It was mothballed in the 1990s. As chair of the Leamside line all-party parliamentary group, I have campaigned, with the help of my hon. Friend, to reopen the line and to bring trains to Washington, which is one of the largest towns in the UK without a direct rail link.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) on securing this important debate.

Today, as colleagues have said, we mark 200 years since the Stockton and Darlington railway opened; it was the first passenger railway in the world, and the Quaker philanthropist Edward Pease, father of the railways, had a slogan for the railway:

“At private risk for public service”.

It was a radical experiment to fund engineer George Stephenson and his 18-year-old son Robert to use a steam engine instead of horses to power Locomotion No. 1, and it worked. As we have heard in this debate, 10,000 people turned out to welcome its launch, and the success of the railway soon spread across Britain and around the world. Goods could move quickly and cheaply, and so could people.

Stockton’s exports and economy grew, and soon the town’s storage staithes could not keep up with the amount of coal, so in the summer of 1828, Edward’s son Joseph started looking for new land. On 2 August 1828, he surveyed the small hamlet of Middlesbrough. He recorded in his diary that he could see the day when

“the bare fields will be covered with a busy multitude, and numerous vessels crowding to the banks denoting a busy seaport”.

He bought the farmland in 1829, with a population of 25, as my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald) has just said; over the next 20 years, it would grow to over 7,000. Industrial Teesside was born.

Sadly, 200 years on, our public transport across Teesside is no longer world leading. Our bus routes have been cut back and our trains do not meet the needs of our communities. That is why the Labour Government have given the Tees Valley Mayor a £1 billion Transport for City Regions settlement to start sorting things out.