Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council officials have announced that initial work on the first phase of the ВЈ140m Tees Valley Metro project in the UK will begin shortly.
The local authority is expected to develop and finalise plans with Network Rail, Northern Rail and the area's Joint Strategy Unit by the end of September.
The project includes upgrading existing rail lines and constructing new lines between Darlington and Saltburn to allow trains to run every 15 minutes.
The new metro will cut travel times between Darlington and Saltburn to less than 45 minutes compared to the current journey of over 60 minutes.
