Northumberland Line Opening!
In some very welcome news, the Northumberland Line has finally been given an opening date of Sunday 15th December 2024.
This is a very welcome step forward for many of the large towns in South East Northumberland, which haven’t seen a rail service since 2nd November 1964, so a little over 60 years of being unserved by rail, yet was tantalizingly close with the railway remaining open for railfreight, occasional diversions, and railtours.
Only two stations; Ashington, and Seaton Delaval, will be open from the outset, with Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, and Northumberland Park to come into use during 2025.
I look forward to riding on the line at the earliest opportunity, and hopefully it’ll be roaring success right from the start.
New LNER Near Four Hour Edinburgh to London Journey Time: Both Good and Bad?
There has also been a recent announcement in The Scotsman about LNER getting a timetable change that would result in a regular service between the Scottish and English capitals of just four hours and 10 minutes, calling only at Newcastle and York.
While this is aimed at gaining modal shift from air travel, which is unarguably a good thing to deal with the emissions from domestic flights by moving people by electric trains instead, there is a drawback of these trains being non-stop through Northumberland (and other places).
These non-stop trains use a lot of capacity on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), meaning that there is pressure to reduce station calls at smaller stations such as Morpeth, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), and Berwick, with the smallest stations such as Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington, Pegswood, and even Cramlington less likely to see an improved service, especially a local (all station) service.
Whilst it may be possible to serve some stations better via semi-fast ‘skip-stop’ trains, such as Transpennine Express (TPE) serving Chathill, which of course is a very welcome step, it does show how the pressure on the ECML to provide long-distance services between Edinburgh and London has a clear negative effect locally in Northumberland
There is an urgent need to more comprehensively look at the rail infrastructure of the Northumberland Coast, to allow both services to run to better effect; schemes like Belford Station need to be built and have regular services just as much as ‘flight-beater’ expresses need to rattle through Northumberland at speed.
On that last point, it again points to the absurdity of the Morpeth Curve, as a 50mph stretch of the ECML, remaining in place on the mainline in 2024, when almost 150 years ago, a new line was proposed by Captain Henry Tyler of HMRI as far back as 1877. A new alignment to bypass this sharp curve could both boost local connectivity through released capacity, whilst also further cutting journey times, a win-win. Please read our previous blog here for more info.
The Northumberland Coast Loop: A Alternative Route for the ECML?
As the Northumberland Line moves closer to completion, it opens up the potential for it to work as an alternative route between Newcastle and Edinburgh for regular, scheduled passenger services, as a train could run between the two cities either via Cramlington or via Bedlington, both routes having been possible direct since 1980 after construction of the Morpeth North Curve.
The above image, kindly shared by Ian Royston, shows a diverted HST passing the site of the former Backworth Station in 1984, following a derailment at Morpeth Curve. At the time of this photo, the stations on the Blyth and Tyne route had been closed for almost 20 years, with all apart from the single platform at Bedlington removed by that date.
That situation is now changed, with Seaton Delaval now due to open on the 15th of this month (December 2024), with Northumberland Park, Newsham, Blyth Bebside and a now two platform Bedlington due to join in 2025; meaning that services via this route could stop and pick up/set down passengers.
This could allow a town such as Cramlington, that whilst having its own station, sadly suffers from a relatively poor service pattern, being mainly served by Newcastle to Morpeth local trains only; whereas a route via Blyth would allow something of an agglomeration benefit by serving multiple large towns more directly (Blyth Bebside for example is within easy reach of Blyth, Cramlington, Bedlington, Ashington and Newbiggin via both Northumberland Line itself (and hopefully future expansion to Newbiggin), as well as local bus services.
Taking approximately 40 mins between Newcastle and Pegswood via Blyth, the route is slower than the 20 min journey time via Cramlington, but by serving such large settlements more directly than at present would give these areas a further boost, and at relatively little additional cost.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 