内容摘要："I hope that the site's history with Britishvolt and unfulfilled promises does not foster excessive scepticism among residents," he said.

"I hope that the site's history with Britishvolt and unfulfilled promises does not foster excessive scepticism among residents," he said.

He described it as a "good problem" for the £298m project where passenger numbers are on course to hit five times the original estimate.The council thinks 250,000 journeys will have been made by Easter, against initial expectations of 50,000.

Wearmouth said: "I have spent many years being told that this project would be a colossal failure and a waste of money, but with just three stations open it is showing just how successful it will be."Currently, on matchdays and a number of other times, we are getting close to capacity where people are having to stand for their journey."We might have to think about extending the trains."

Wearmouth said the platforms were designed to accommodate longer trains and talks were being held with Network Rail and Northern about expanding the trains.The project had faced several delays and spiralling costs, with the route initially scheduled to open last summer.

Stations at Ashington and Seaton Delaval opened in December, while Blyth Newsham opened last month.

The remaining stations at Blyth Bebside, Northumberland Park and Bedlington are due to open throughout this year, theThe contract in question stipulated that Enviro-Mobi should receive upfront payments and that money should only be handed to the company after a portion of its work was completed, police spokesperson Thandi Mbambo said.

However, the Hawks' investigation found that Gauteng's Department of Agriculture paid Enviro-Mobi 25 million rand for 200 vehicles, even though the goods were "still in the possession of the service provider".It is not the first time Mabe, who served as the ANC's spokesperson from 2018 to 2023, has been accused of corruption.

Along with two others, he was arrested in 2013 over allegations he had defrauded the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). The trio were later cleared of all charges.And in 2017 Mabe was fined after a parliamentary committee found that he had benefited from a contract with the state-owned rail company.