Curry Train Heads for a New Platform ; Rail Users Welcome the Flavour of the East

By Dave Black

A RUNDOWN railway station could be converted into a flagship Indian restaurant under plans to extend a successful Curry Train venture into a second Northumberland town.

Morpeth’s historic station building, most of which is standing empty and gradually deteriorating, will be turned into a 100-seat, trackside eating place if the ambitious scheme is given the backing of council planners.

Businessman Daraz Aziz – owner of The Valley Indian restaurant in Corbridge which is served by the famous Curry Train – wants to create a carbon copy at the East Coast main line station in Morpeth.

At Corbridge, up to 10,000 diners a year arrive at the restaurant on the nightly Curry Trains, which have been running from Newcastle and Carlisle for more than a decade.

Mr Aziz hopes for a similar success story at Morpeth, with customers travelling to the new restaurant by Northern Rail trains from Newcastle and Alnmouth.

He has been working on the project for several years and has now submitted a planning application to Castle Morpeth Borough Council after reaching a draft agreement with the station’s various owning interests.

Yesterday Mr Aziz, who also runs Indian restaurants in Jesmond and Hexham, said: “Most of the Morpeth railway station building is totally derelict and we want to refurbish it and create a high- quality restaurant like the one in Corbridge. It won’t affect the use of the station by passengers and the platforms, taxi office and ticket office will stay just as they are at present.

“We want to create the same as what we have at Corbridge, including our Passage to India train service which everyone knows as the Curry Train. We would have an agreement with the train company to reserve part of a train each night to take groups of diners to Morpeth.

“We took over the Corbridge station in 1990 to create The Valley and Morpeth has a nice station building which is just standing there. This has been going on for seven years and now we are just waiting for the council to say we can go ahead and do it. The restaurant would create 15 to 20 jobs and I have already spent more than pounds 10,000 getting to this stage. I don’t expect any problems with the planning permission because I am sure this will enhance the whole area.

“If everything goes according to plan I would hope to open it next summer. The Valley has a wonderful reputation as one of the top Indian restaurants in the country and we want to carry that on to Morpeth.”

The project has been welcomed by the South-East Northumberland Rail Users Group (SENRUG), which campaigns for better services and facilities at Morpeth station. Secretary John Earl said: “We believe this is a very good idea and a really positive development.

“The place is dilapidated and has suffered quite a lot of rain damage so the longer it remains empty these problems will just compound themselves.

“As far as we can see, an Indian restaurant would only enhance the place and we hope it succeeds.”

(c) 2007 The Journal – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.