Passengers urged to check before they travel as Sunderland Train Station closed due to flooding

Sunderland train station is expected to be closed for at least a week due to flooding.

The station which is owned by Network Rail and run by Northern Rail has been closed since Sunday 1 January.

A spokesperson for Northern said: “Sunderland Station will be closed for up to a week because of flooding and damage to overhead lines.

"Sunderland is an underground station, so the flooding has had a greater impact.

It added: ""From today, customers should check before they travel and will need to stop and start from St Peter's and Hartlepool stations. The impact is lessened as rail services are affected until 8 January by rail strikes.”

Network Rail posted on its social media yesterday saying "Trains are unable to call at Sunderland until further notice due to flooding causing damage to the railway."

During the closure, services will start or finish at Newcastle or Hartlepool.

Passengers due to travel on Grand Central services have been advised of changes to the usual timetable, and what they can expect.

Northbound services from London will now terminate at St Peter's, and Southbound services will start from Newcastle. People travelling on these services are advised that their trains will leave an hour earlier than scheduled.

Grand Central passengers will have their tickets accepted on the Tyne and Wear Metro and Cross Country Services.

Nexus, the operator of the Tyne and Wear Metro have also said that services which usually stop at Sunderland station will be affected.

This morning it said: "The service remains suspended between St Peter's and South Hylton in both directions due to extensive flooding at Sunderland and the ongoing repairs to Pallion substation.

"A bus replacement service 901 is running between Park Lane and South Hylton in both directions and an additional 901 bus replacement is running between St Peters and Park Lane in both directions."

Nexus has advised people to leave extra time for their journeys.

The closure of Sunderland station follows recent disruption caused by strikes, and staff shortages which led to MPs from around the city writing to Northern Rail after it announced it planned to close the station over Christmas.

This decision was quickly reversed following the opposition.