As we usher in the 25th year of the 21st Century (scary how fast that has come from those of us who remember the nervousness changing to Y2K from 31/12/1999!), I’d like to wish all of all of our supporters, followers and readers a very Happy New Year for 2025!
Railtours over the N.C.L.
Coming up this year, there is the Seven Counties Rambler by the SRPS on Saturday 8th March to look forward to; which will be the first railtour to traverse the Northumberland Coast Loop route, to my knowledge, since the ‘Bound for Craigy’ tour by the BLS on 18th March 2017, with 2913 days having elapsed between the two.
Having said that, factoring in the Covid-19 Pandemic (which itself started around five years ago, with the first UK lockdown occuring on 23rd March 2025) and several other crises since, as well as the building of the Northumberland Line between those dates, it is quite understandable that not many railtours ran over the route, which has always been a quieter part of the network for them historically.
The Tynesider by the The Railway Touring Company will run from London King’s Cross to Newcastle and return on the 7th June 2025 is also due over part of the route, using the ‘balloon loop’ formed when travelling the Newcastle – Bedlington – Morpeth – Newcastle section of it’s route to allow the locomotive to be turned around for it’s run back towards York, which again will be interesting to see over the Northumberland Line/Hepscott Line.
Hopefully more tours will run over the Northumberland Line in due course over 2025, with both showing the potential ease of routine services using the route, but especially the Seven Counties Rambler illustrating how easy a Newcastle to Edinburgh via Bedlington route could be achieved?
The Northumberland Line in 2025
Speaking of the Northumberland Line, as it stands today only Seaton Delaval station is open on the route of the Northumberland Coast Loop thus far, having opened alongside Ashington on the 15th December 2024 with the partial opening of the whole line to passenger traffic.
So far, the other stations at Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, and Northumberland Park are all slated for a 2025 opening, with Newsham likely to be the first station of the year in February/March 2025, Blyth Bebside potentially second (by my own judgement), with Bedlington, and Northumberland Park likely to open later 2025.
As these stations progressively open, and the Northumberland Line service establishes itself into normality, then expansions to the system are likely to become the next focus.
Extensions of the Northumberland Line
There have been multiple proposals for the ‘next steps’ of the Northumberland Line, some of which will be briefly outlined below.
1. Newcastle to Newbiggin via Ashington
A long stated aspiration has been to extend what is now known as the Northumberland Line north and eastwards to the town of Newbiggin by the Sea, the traditional terminus of passenger lines (and giving the line from Bedlington the moniker of the ‘Newbiggin Branch‘).
This route would likely see the addition of a totally new station at Woodhorn, an intermediate stop between Newbiggin and Ashington to serve the growing eastern side of Ashington, as well as providing a possible Park and Ride station with good access to the northern end of the A189 Spine Road, and also to the A1068.
The section east of Woodhorn into Newbiggin itself would require rebuilding a short length of railway into the town, but as far as Woodhorn, the line remains in use for biomass trains serving Lynemouth Power Station.
In my own view, the Lynemouth Branch could potentially another candidate to transfer to passenger use to serve the villages of Lynemouth, Ellington, and Cresswell, and serve the very popular Cresswell Beach and Druridge Bay area by rail, but this might only be reasonable when Lynemouth Power Station ceases operation.
This could lead to a ‘Y’ shaped network beyond Ashington, with one leg of the Y serving Lynemouth (for Ellington), and the other into Newbiggin by the Sea.
2. The Cambois Branch could be another potential contender for passenger services, itself branching off the Bedlington to Ashington route just north of Bedlington, and curving around the northern side of the River Blyth. This would require a totally new station in the Cambois/North Blyth area, as this line has never previously carried passengers.
This would serve the communities of Cambois and North Blyth, as well as the substantial proposed data centres in Cambois, and other industries around this side of the Port of Blyth.
With a new crossing of the River Blyth, either a bridge or perhaps more reasonably a ferry, this route could provide a station serving Blyth Town Centre too, the existing, working railhead being very close (approx 600m) to the original Blyth station, only separated by the Port of Blyth.
A pedestrian ferry service, similar to that operated on the nearby River Tyne could provide a crossing to service such as station located here, with onward rail services to Newcastle and potentially also Ashington being options.
3. The Northumberland Coast Loop would potentially be the easiest route of all to develop, as unlike the preceding two options, it would not require building any new lines or additional stations, as it simply uses existing/soon to exist stations on the existing ECML and Northumberland Line, and uses the existing route via Hepscott between Pegswood and Bedlington (as railfreight, passenger diversions, and railtours of the past, present and future show is possible).
It would also help open the door to reopening the long closed Choppington station, situated near to the busy A1068 between Bedlington and Guide Post, and could be shared with the also proposed Newcastle to Bedlington via Morpeth services.
Such as service could offer direct long distance services from large towns such as Blyth into North Northumberland and Scotland (i.e. Edinburgh), which would also benefit nearby settlements such as Cramlington (whilst having a station itself, has always struggled to achieve a decent rail service for a town of its size), and of course would be easily accessible for all places on the Northumberland Line to reach it by transfers being made at proposed interchanges at Northumberland Park and Blyth Bebside.
Successes of 2024 for the N.C.L.
The Northumberland Coast Loop had a successful year in 2024, with ending it with a number of successes.
Social Media
Our Facebook and Twitter following has done well over 2024, with hopefully more growth to come during 2025.
Website
The N.C.L. website and blog has done especially well during 2024, with 7,740 views by 6,440 visitors from across the globe, the majority being from the UK, but some notably high figures from the likes of the USA, Ireland and somewhat unexpectedly, Sweden, and Canada making up the Top 5 nations!
With luck, 2025 will be equally, if not more successful in terms of visitors to the website, blog and following/interactions on social media.
N.C.L. Petition
The petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop, now closed, also did very well, with 742 supporters at its end in October 2024. Thank you to all who have signed it, and it has recieved a favourable response from Glen Sanderson, current leader of Northumberland County Council, so it is certainly on the radar for the future.
YouTube Channel
The N.C.L YouTube Channel is also steadily growing as more content is added, with bigger changes planned for 2025: watch this space!
Forward into 2025
With that, there is a lot to look forward to in 2025, the return of railtours to the route, and the pipeline of future plans for the campaign is looking good, which will be announced in due course.
Again, wishing everyone who reads this a very Happy New Year, and best wishes to all!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 