Bedlington Station: The Three Potential Services Explained

Following some confusion on Social Media of what services will go where, this short explainer will hopefully help.

Northumberland Line

The first service to start (Summer 2024) will be the Northumberland Line (Ashington to Newcastle via Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park), which will stop at Bedlington once that station is opened (later in 2024/early 2025 based on recent announcements).

Newcastle to Bedlington via Morpeth

The next service after the Northumberland Line will likely be the extension of the current Newcastle to Morpeth local train (that calls at Cramlington and Manors too) onto Bedlington. The trains currently sit for quite a while in the sidings at Coopies Lane, so once Bedlington Station is opened, the plan is to extend their route to Bedlington and back (about 8mins journey time between Morpeth and Bedlington Station compared to about 33mins by bus).

To reach any of the other Northumberland Line stations, a change onto a Northumberland Line train would be required as the train would terminate at Bedlington and head back to Morpeth.

Northumberland Coast Loop

The Northumberland Coast Loop is a newer campaign, and so less established than either of the above, but would seek to run the route shown below through Bedlington (local trains only calling at Bedlington due to likely constraints on train length with junction and level crossings at each end of the Bedlington platforms).

That being said, a target of 2025 hopefully isn’t unreasonable as Bedlington/Bebside have a strong link to the Stockton and Darlington Railway (which used Bedlington made rails for about 2/3rds of the line), so hopefully a longer distance connection at Bebside could be made in 2025 to help highlight the role Bedlington played in early railway history.

The only Northumberland Line station not served by this route is Ashington, so a change at either Bedlington or Bebside (semi-fast services planned to call at Bebside) would be required to go to/from Ashington.