the feasibility of the scheme in June 2013. This was followed by a more detailed study, commissioned in June 2015, which confirmed that the reintroduction of a frequent seven-day-a-week passenger service between Newcastle Central and Ashington was feasible and could provide economic benefits of £70million with more than 380,000 people using the line each year by 2034. Despite a change in the political leadership of Northumberland County Council following the 2017 local elections the authority continued to develop the project, encouraged by the Department for Transport's November 2017 report, A Strategic Vision for Rail, which named the line as a possible candidate for a future reintroduction of passenger services. More detailed plans were announced in July 2019 which would have split the project into four phases to reduce the initial cost of the scheme. The initial phase, at an estimated £90million, would have seen the creation of new or reopened National Rail stations at Northumberland Park (for interchange with the Tyne and Wear Metro), , and and several other infrastructure upgrades undertaken to allow an hourly passenger train to be provided between them and Newcastle. Two further stations, at and Blyth Bebside were to be added in Phase 2 and other infrastructure upgrades would follow in Phases 3 and 4 to enable the frequency to be doubled to half-hourly. In August 2020, it was reported that these four proposed phases might be merged into a single one. The Department for Transport allocated an initial grant of £1.5million towards the project costs in January 2020 which was supplemented by an allocation of £10million of funds from Northumberland County Council the following month. This funding enabled detailed on-site ground investigation works to begin in October 2020. The allocation of a further £34million of UK Government funding for the project in January 2021 enables the necessary land to be purchased, detailed designs to be prepared and some early preparatory and site works to begin. In January 2021, it was anticipated that the UK Government would fund the remainder of the project cost, estimated at £166million as of January 2021, once the final phase of design works were completed. However, in April 2021, it was reported that government officials were seeking to reduce the cost of the project as part of the Department for Transport's Project SPEED initiative. It was reported that the cost-saving measures under consideration included and cutting initial service frequencies from