The Northumberland Coast Loop through South East Northumberland and North Tyneside.

The map above shows the route of the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop through South East Northumberland, which shares a common route with the Northumberland Line between Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Bedlington, Northumberland. It then heads westwards and rejoins the East Coast Main Line (ECML) near Pegswood and Morpeth, allowing access towards North Northumberland and Edinburgh.

While this route is very modestly longer than the ECML route through this part of Northumberland, it does run via larger settlements:

Settlement data source: https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/people/the-29-biggest-towns-in-northumberland-ranked-by-latest-census-figures-3363081

Bedlington is the fourth largest town in Northumberland with a population of 16,348 at the time of the 2021 Census, for context, neighbouring Morpeth on the ECML has a population of 14,419, nearly 2000 fewer persons.

Blyth is the largest town by a considerable margin, with a population of 37,742 in 2021, and will be served by both Blyth Bebside and Newsham Stations, which are situated on the western edge of the town, and arguably would also serve the town of Cramlington quite well, which has a population of 28,843, which whilst it has its own station, tends to have a relatively poor service for a town of its size.

These three settlements around the River Blyth, of Bedlington, Blyth and Cramlington together have a combined population of 82,933 persons.

The station at Bebside is particularly well located for serving all three settlements by active travel (Route 1 Cycle Path nearby and numerous other walking and cycling connections), buses and road connections (the A189 Spine Road in particular), so using this station for semi-fast long distance trains could arguably have a great catchment area alongside great access via a variety of modes of transport to & from the station.

Newsham is another station situated pretty much between Blyth and Cramlington and again offers potential to serve both settlements quite well.

Further smaller settlements in area include Stakeford/Guide Post at 8,194, which brings the potential catchment of Bebside to over 90,000 persons.

The settlement of Seaton Delaval stands at 8005 persons, but again has a much larger catchment potential for its namesake station as it doesn’t include settlements such as Seghill, and Seaton Delaval is also the closest station to NSECH, which would offer a lot of traffic to/from the hospital potentially.

Northumberland Park is situated on the northern edge of North Tyneside, and is surrounded by areas of housing such as Shiremoor, and West Allotment, but is also adjacent to the Tyne and Wear Metro Station of the same name, offering an interchange between the Yellow Line of the system and the national rail network outside of Central Station and much shorter travelling distance for many stations en-route, again another potentially ideal stop for semi-fast longer distance trains.

North Tyneside is home to 209,151 persons according to the 2021 Census data, which is a very large potential catchment.

One key advantage of Northumberland Park is its close proximity to the DFDS Ferry Terminal and Cruise Terminals at Port of Tyne, which could allow better public transport connections to and from the ferries/cruises by improving almost direct rail connections (short transfer by bus/taxi) as opposed to longer bus or taxi trips from Central Station.

A second advantage of Northumberland Park is its location close to Cobalt Park, one of the largest office parks in the UK.

All in all, this section of the Northumberland Coast Loop has the potential to serve about 300,000 persons, as well as significant sites of employment such as those around the Blyth Estuary, and in North Tyneside, as well as connecting sites such as the ferry and cruise terminals for onward international travel to areas such as North Northumberland and Scotland.

If you agree, please share this post with friends and family and contact your local elected representatives, from your local councillors all the way to your MP, to help make this rail route a reality.