Teesside Airport railway station is on the Tees Valley line which runs between and via in County Durham, England. The station is east of Darlington and is situated relatively close to Teesside International Airport, which owns the station, but not near enough to be considered as a viable means of travelling to the airport. It is managed by Northern Trains, which also operated the limited service calling at the station prior to its temporary closure in 2022. Teesside Airport is one of Britain's least-used railway stations, with an estimated 338 passenger journeys made during 2019/20. In both 2012/13 and 2013/14 it was the least-used station in the country, serving just eight passengers per year. In 2020/21, due to decreased travel throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the station saw only two passenger journeys made. The station has been closed since May 2022 with the one operational platform condemned as unsafe. History The station is on the original route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Funded by the Teesside Airport Joint Committee, it was opened by British Rail on 3 October 1971. The airport is located around a mile from the station, and accessibility issues are a major factor in its lack of usage. In 2004, the airport changed its name to Durham Tees Valley Airport, but reverted to Teesside International Airport in 2019. The station's name was never updated to reflect the change. In 2007, Northern Rail erected new signs reading Teesside Airport, replacing previous signs which had used a hyphen in Tees-side. National Rail now also lists the station as Teesside Airport. On 24 October 2009, a group of 26 people travelled to and from the station on the only scheduled service, to highlight the station's existence and its limited service, and to try to persuade railway authorities to move it closer to the airport terminal. The station was featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Ghost Trains of Old England in October 2010. It was suggested that a large proportion of the tickets sold for the station are bought by collectors who wish to own tickets with rare or unusual destinations, and do not necessarily travel. The station has two platforms, each long enough for a four-carriage train. In December 2017, it was announced by Durham Tees Valley Airport that the station's footbridge and Middlesbrough-bound platform would be closed, in order to save a quoted total of £6 million