Full steam ahead for railway lines.

THE campaign for the expansion of rail services in the North East will take a major step forward with the release of a new report today.

To the undoubted delight of commuters, shoppers and people intent on simply having fun, the Association of Train Operating Companies will urge the reopening of two lines.

For years, campaigners have urged that the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne line should be brought back into use. Many a working life spent on Tyneside would be improved no end if it were.

The companies' report suggests the old Leamside line, linking Newcastle to Washington, should be reopened as well.

The restored lines, and the new stations they'd require, would bring the railways back within easy reach of communities cut off from them since the Beeching days of the 1960s.

The Leamside line is capable also of providing a link to Teesside, which would ease matters greatly for all whose journeys between the Tees and Tyne conurbations must be made by road.

As the battle against global warming continues to escalate, such major advances in the struggle to cut carbon emissions are important.

And while reopening lines will not be cheap, they represent an investment in the North East's economy that it would reap great benefits from..