Today, Saturday 4th January 2025, marks the nine week countdown until ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ organised by the SRPS takes to the rails on the 8th March 2025.
This railtour, beginning and ending in Linlithgow, Scotland will take in a number of spectacular lines on it’s excursion around Scotland and Northern England (take a look at the programme on the SRPS website, link above), with the final leg from Newcastle back to Linlithgow via Edinburgh Waverley taking in the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop route, from Newcastle to Berwick via Bedlington.
For those with an interest in classic traction, proposed haulage is a pair of Class 37 locomotives, with one being 37403 ‘Isle of Mull’.
Connecting The Northumberland Line to North Northumberland and Scotland
The concept behind the Northumberland Coast Loop Campaign is to use the existing lines that this railtour makes use of (the Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, then the Hepscott Line to connect back onto the East Coast Main Line (ECML) to head towards Pegswood, then the ECML back to Edinburgh), for regular services.
Whilst the Northumberland Line reopening is a HUGE step forward in it’s own right, by giving the major coalfield towns a rail connection again after an absence of over 60 years to the nearest major city (Newcastle Upon Tyne), with already stated plans for direct Sunday trains to the Gateshead MetroCentre from December 2025, the Hepscott Line could similarly offer access to/from North Northumberland or even Scotland.
As can be seen from the above image (via the incredibly useful Rail Map Online website), the line from Bedlington towards Morpeth actually forms a triangular junction at its western end, allowing a train passing west through Hepscott to either turn left towards Morpeth station, or to take the fairly newly built (1979/80 built) Morpeth North Curve to take the route to Pegswood and directly head northwards.
The photo above of 66301 in August 2024 by S. Lewins shows this route in its most common use; as a freight line taking the North Blyth to Fort William alumina flow into Scotland, and bringing empties back to the Port of Blyth.
Railfreight has been a lifeline for the rail network in the Ashington and Blyth area since the 1960’s, keeping much of the network alive and open, which has probably kept the door open for the Northumberland Line scheme. A total closure of the route, as has happened on the Leamside Line has proven more challenging to reverse by way of comparison.
Five Out Of Six Ain’t Bad
The Ashington to Newcastle ‘Northumberland Line’ will be six stations when fully opened, with Ashington, and Seaton Delaval already open. Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, and Northumberland Park are due to be completed by the end of 2025, but hopefully much earlier than that.
With these stations well underway, and evidence pointing to the line being a success already, thoughts are now turning to expansions of the network.
Obvious candidates like extension to Newbiggin by the Sea, with an intermediate station at Woodhorn have been tabled already, but would require some relaying of track, as well as construction of new stations.
The Northumberland Coast Loop, by contrast would use the existing Hepscott Line link between Bedlington and Pegswood to link the existing/currently being built stations together, meaning it should be a fairly simple scheme to use this link more routinely. Freight trains run over this route several times a week; why couldn’t passenger trains also do the same?
Northern Market
From personal knowledge, a lot of people in the area of South East Northumberland/North Tyneside who’d be served by the Northumberland Line travel northwards into North Northumberland and Scotland fairly frequently; for example a day trip to Alnwick for attractions such as Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden and Lilidorei, Barter Books and more are just some examples for day trip places. In the other direction, sites like Seaton Delaval Hall (National Trust) and Blyth Battery are attractions which draw visitors from North Northumberland/Scotland into SE Northumberland.
It is quite common for many in these areas to also take holidays at places such as the two large Haven Holiday parks at Haggerston Castle or Berwick, on a recent holiday at Berwick, the owner of the neighbouring caravan was a North Tyneside resident who travelled regularly between the two sites.
Given the relative distances involved (Blyth Bus Station to Berwick Railway station is 59 miles), rail is realistically needed to make public transport viable compared to driving; buses are far too slow to be competitive. A good rail connection could allow for many more trips to be made by rail as part of public transport, rather than by private car, with huge environmental, emissions and congestion busting benefits.
There could be two types of service to use this route; semi-fast (some station stops), and local (all stations). Semi-fast is probably the more likely solution in the short-term, where a limited number of stops will be made on both the ECML and on the Northumberland Line to better fit in amongst other mainline services; slower local trains are desirable, but may be less achievable in the short-term due to capacity constraints on the ECML.
The musical reference to Meat Loaf’s ‘Two out of three ain’t bad’ is that only five of the six Northumberland Line stations will be on the route; Ashington is unfortunately on a branch off this through route, and so wouldn’t be directly served.
This is counteracted quite a long way by easy interchange potential at stations such as Blyth Bebside between N.C.L. services and Northumberland Line trains.
The Northumberland Coast Loop could be potentially very easy to implement, with huge potential gains to be made at relatively low capital costs; why not get it opened up for regular services even if just as a trial?
The Northumberland Coast Loop 