In the last few days, I have sent an email to Ian Lavery, MP for Blyth and Ashington to ask for his support for the Northumberland Coast Loop proposal of a rail service from Newcastle to Berwick/Edinburgh via Bedlington and Hepscott.
While hopefully Ian will recieve the email, the automated response that came back mentions that as I now no longer a constituent of Ian’s (I now live in the neighbouring North Northumberland seat, presently held by David Smith, MP, whom I have emailed previously about the N.C.L. route), that he might therefore not be able to act upon this email from myself.
However, I know that a good number of the readers of this website and blog do live in Ian Lavery’s constituency, and if so, would you be willing to email him to seek his backing for the proposed route?
If you’d like to double check that your MP is Ian Lavery, please use this link to the ‘Find Your MP tool on the UK Parliament website. You just have to put your postcode in to double check.
The more people who email in support of the Northumberland Coast Loop, the better chance there is of gaining traction and political support for it to happen.
The more people who can send such an email the better, so please encourage friends and family where you can to do so as well!
Below is a template (please feel free to amend and personalise as you see fit), which you may find useful to base your email upon.
To: Ian Lavery MP (email address on his parliamentary page)
Letter of Support for the Northumberland Coast Loop Campaign
Dear Mr Ian Lavery MP,
As a constituent of yours, I would like to ask for your support for the Northumberland Coast Loop, which is a proposal for new rail service between Newcastle Upon Tyne and Berwick Upon Tweed via Bedlington, Northumberland.
The website for this campaign is at http://www.northumberlandcoastloop.uk, and a recent petition for the route gained the support of 742 signatures, highlighting it’s strong level of support.
This route would build upon the recently reopened Northumberland Line to passengers, by using the currently freight only connecting line from Bedlington station, through the village of Hepscott, to rejoin the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth North Junction, headed towards Pegswood, North Northumberland, and Edinburgh.
This rail link would give even greater advantages to rail users living in close proximity to the soon to open Northumberland Line stations at Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Newsham stations within your constituency, by allowing direct rail connections to North Northumberland places such as Alnmouth station, serving Alnwick and Amble, as well as Berwick. This would serve the ‘within Northumberland’ market for transport by providing much faster, safer, and greener rail connections.
If used by longer distance rail services, this route could also connect the above stations directly to major cities other than Newcastle Upon Tyne, such as direct links to Edinburgh, York, or potentially even London.
An example of the benefits of such as service can be seen by the Grand Central services between Sunderland and London King’s Cross, which have operated since December 2007, serving similar industrial towns to Blyth such as Hartlepool with long distance, direct trains up to five times per day.
The economic impact of such a service serving the new stations in our constituency could be transformative, encouraging new businesses, as well as helping existing ones to develop further.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your reply.
Yours and kind regards,
(Your Name),
(Your Address),
(Your Email)
(Your Phone Number)
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The Northumberland Coast Loop 