Brandling Junction Railway in 1937. Decline On 1 January 1948, the London & North Eastern Railway became part of the nationalised British Railways, and, along with other lines in the North East, the Durham Coast Line originally became part of its North Eastern Region. The North Eastern Region would, itself, later be merged into the BR's Eastern Region on 2 January 1967. By the 1950s, passenger and goods traffic across the country was in decline due to completion from road transport, and as a consequence, most of the earlier east–west lines from which the DCL had developed began to lose passenger services. These closures included the inland West Hartlepool to Sunderland route through Haswell (the main line between the two towns until 1905), which lost its passenger service on 9 June 1952. However the DCL itself was not seriously affected by the closures, until it began to lose stations from 1960 onwards. Even the Beeching Report only recommended the closure of the remaining three intermediate stations between West Hartlepool and Seaham. This occurred on 4 May 1964, when stopping passenger services along this section of the line were withdrawn. Elsewhere, the Newcastle—Pelaw—South Shields route was de-electrified in January 1963 and, later, stopping passenger services on this route, and the wider DCL north of Sunderland, were downgraded to Paytrain services, resulting in most intermediate stations becoming unmanned from 5 October 1969. Despite this apparent degradation of passenger services, British Rail did implement some improvements during this period, including the replacement of the original station at with a newer one, closer to the modern town centre on 7 November 1966. Freight traffic on the line continued to thrive, whilst the collieries along the line (and a few short sections of the older east–west lines which had been retained as branches for mineral traffic) were still in operation. Owing to the relatively recent development of the coastal collieries, many of them survived until the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nonetheless, the decline of the British coal industry meant that this traffic, too, was steadily lost, commencing with the cessation of mining operations at Blackhall Colliery, on 16 April 1981 and culminating with that at Wearmouth Colliery, on 24 November 1993. In the early 1980s Greatham station saw its services reduced before full closure on 24 November 1991. Recent History The former British Rail stations on the Durham Coast Line at Felling and Pelaw