The mothballed Leamside line through County Durham will be reopened using funds from a scrapped HS2 link.

The line - which runs from Tyneside, through Washington, County Durham and joins up with the East Coast Mainline (ECML) at Ferryhill - will be reopened under new government plans.

It comes after PM Rishi Sunak confirmed he was scrapping the ‘northern’ leg of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester and redirecting £36bn of funding to “hundreds” of infrastructure projects across the country.

Read more: REVEALED: The North East projects earmarked for funding after HS2 scrapped

A new station at Ferryhill has also been promised as part of the announcement.

The Leamside line fell victim to the Beeching cuts of the 1960s which saw thousands of stations and miles of track taken out of use across the country.

Campaigners have long said reopening the route - which runs from Gateshead, through Washington, Penshaw, Fencehouses, West Rainton, Belmont and Shincliffe to Ferryhill - could increase capacity on the ECML and open up opportunities for a £745m extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro, bringing a huge economic boost to the region.

Mapped: Where the Leamside line runs through the North East

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The campaign to restore services has been backed by cross-party MPs including Conservative Sedgefield MP Paul Howell and Washington and Sunderland West MP Sharon Hodgson.

Earlier this year the Transport Secretary Mark Harper failed to be drawn on whether he would back the project, on the same day Labour committed to reopening the 21-mile line.

Speaking to the Echo back in March Mr Harper said: “There’s a business case being put together for the Leamside line which the department is looking at, but you have to do these things as you can do them.”

More to follow.