successor to the Y&NR). On the 31 July 1854, the YN&BR was amalgamated with other companies to form the North Eastern Railway. The NER initiated a programme of improvements to ex-HD&R and ex-D&SR lines during the 1870s: in 1874, the tracks up the original 1 in 34 rope-worked incline at Bank were realigned to ease the gradients and enable locomotive working and, in 1877, a chord was built at to allow through passenger trains to run between the ex-HD&R and ex-D&SR networks, creating a direct route between West Hartlepool and Sunderland. By this time, the new village of Shotton Colliery (referred to as New Shotton on early OS maps) had developed to provide housing for the colliery workers and so, as part of these improvement works, in 1877 the NER opened a station at Shotton Bridge to serve the new community. The station offices were located on a widened road bridge over the tracks and were linked to the two platforms by covered stairways. Each platform had a brick waiting room. Unlike other contemporary stations of the NER, the station never had any goods facilities, perhaps due to the colliery being served by its own wagonway branch. However, in the year that the station was opened, Shotton Grange Colliery and its waggonway closed (the limited technology of the time was unable to extract coal economically from the depths at which it was present) meaning that the village lost its main source of employment. Thus, in 1894 it was reported that many of the village's workmen's houses were abandoned. In 1901 the station served a population of 959 within the immediate vicinity but the reopening of the colliery (and the southern section of the wagonway) later that year was one cause of the increase to 6,280 in 1911. Decline and closure Despite the improvements of the 1870s, the route through Shotton Bridge continued to provide a steep and indirect route between West Hartlepool and Sunderland and so, on 1 April 1905, the NER opened a new coastal line linking the former Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway at with the ex-HD&R line near the coast at . The new line allowed the steepest sections of the inland route to be bypassed and thus led to the gradual diversion of much of the longer-distance traffic away from Shotton Bridge station and onto the new line. The NER became part of the London and