North Eastern Railway (LNER) as part of the 1923 grouping, which in turn came under the control of the North Eastern Region of British Railways following its nationalisation in 1948. By this time, passenger and goods traffic across the country was in decline and this was also the case for the route from West Hartlepool to Sunderland through Shotton Bridge. The route lost its stopping passenger services (south of ) on 9 June 1952 and though many of the stations on the line remained open to goods traffic until 1966, the lack of goods handling facilities meant that Shotton Bridge station closed completely when passenger services ceased. The line was, however, still used by Sunday diversions until the section through Haswell was dismantled in the late 1960s and a single line through the station was maintained to provide a southerly outlet for coal from South Hetton and Hawthorn Collieries until around the time of the 1984 miner's strike. Shotton Grange Colliery continued to be served by the remaining section of waggonway until its closure in 1972. Shortly before the station's closure, the new town of Peterlee was established in 1948 and was to be located a short distance to the east of Shotton Colliery. However, by the time construction of the town had actually commenced, the station had already closed. Once the remaining tracks were lifted on the line, work commenced on converting the disused section (south of Haswell) into the Hart to Haswell Walkway which was linked into the Castle Eden Walkway to form a continuous north–south cycleway. This was eventually extended to Ryhope after the closure of the remaining section of the line between Hawthorn Colliery and Junction in 1991. References External links Disused railway stations in County Durham Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1877 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1952