A regional daily newspaper has published a special wrap-around supplement as part of a campaign to bring back train-building to the North-East.

The Northern Echo launched its Back on Track campaign in July in partnership with councils and business organisations to urge the government to approve a project allowing a new generation of express trains to be built locally.

And it produced an eight-page wrap-around campaign supplement on the same day a delegation of business leaders and politicians travelled to London to present their case for the scheme.

It is thought the Intercity Express Programme could bring up to 8,000 jobs to boost the North-East economy and the newspaper has been calling for the government to give it the go-ahead.

Editor Peter Barron said the project was felt to be so vital to the region, a decision had been made to publish the wrap-around supplement.

He said: “We don’t do that lightly but we felt it was so important for the campaign.

“Up until last week, it was going to be a supplement inside the paper but we thought it was so big we should do it as a wrap-around supplement. I can’t remember the last time we did something like this.

“It is not often you get to push for 8,000 jobs. There’s a lot of optimism the Government will say yes.”

The supplement included a full overview of the train-building project and the advantages it would bring to the North-East.

Deputy editor Chris Lloyd went with the delegation to London, providing regular updates for the website, and reporting on the event.

Agility Trains, a consortium led by Hitachi, was named as the preferred bidder last year for a £7.5bn contract to build 1,400 train vehicles and Newton Aycliffe is believed to be the favoured location – but the project has faced delays since then.

A decision on whether it will go ahead is expected around the same time as the government’s spending review next month.