The county council has, however, continued to develop the project and hired AECOM and SLC Rail as contractors to develop the scheme on their behalf in 2018. On 8 February 2019, the council chartered a train from Northern that carried the then Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling and other dignitaries over part of the route (now rechristened the "Northumberland Line") between Morpeth and Newsham, after which NNC announced an additional £3.46 million in funding for a further business case and detailed design study (equivalent to GRIP 3) to be completed by the end of 2019. It is envisaged that passenger trains could be introduced as early as 2022. A Strategic Outline Business Case for the project, prepared by the chosen contractors in March 2019, reiterated the economic benefits of the project, again suggesting that it could boost the local economy by up to £70 million. The Campaign for Better Transport has identified the line as a Priority 1 candidate for reopening.