Just over a month since the launch of the new petition calling for a Newcastle to Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park rail service, it is performing strongly, with 232 signatures at the time of writing.
With the recently published success of the Northumberland Line, having over 135,000 passengers quoted on the opening day of Newsham station, 92 days since opening on the 15th December shows how popular the new route between Ashington and Newcastle has already proven to be with just HALF of the new stations now open.
A recent BBC article also shows that journeys starting at these new stations on the Northumberland Line are not just local ones, to and from Newcastle. An extract below from this article states that Mr Watson (20) was using the newly opened station to travel to York.
From a conversation with a work colleague, they used the station at Seaton Delaval to reach Edinburgh via Newcastle, but there would be potential to undertake this route directly, as was shown just 10 days ago by a railtour operated by the SRPS called ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’
Direct Link to Edinburgh by Rail
As can be seen, on the late evening of the 8th March 2025, ‘The Rambler’ left Newcastle bound for Edinburgh, taking the lesser travelled route via the Northumberland Coast. With the ongoing success of the Northumberland Line, and the fantastic progress of the petition suggesting good levels of support; surely this route should feature as a logical ‘next step’ for expansion of the Northumberland Line?
Just a simple train service over a slightly different route.
It wouldn’t need any additional stations, although it would assist the long-held case for Choppington station to be reopened, and the track is already in place to enable it (unlike the announcement for reopening Newbiggin Station, a route that lost its track decades ago).
As a local lad, I know that North Northumberland destinations like Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden & Lilidorei, Barter Books, Bamburgh Castle, Seahouses and many more are popular ‘day out’ venues, whilst further afield cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Scotland more generally are ideal long day out, short break and holiday destinations from this area.
Using this route regularly would have additional benefit as a diversionary route should an incident like what happened at Plessey Viaduct in October 2023 reoccur again in future too. Drivers would be able to take the bi-mode units (electric & diesel engine/battery pack) already used on Newcastle – Edinburgh services via this alternative route.
Doing the route regularly allows the vital route knowledge to be developed and retained, and rather than running occasional empty trains, why not fill them with passengers?
It is a slightly slower route between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth, but it serves larger population centres (Blyth is the largest town in Northumberland), and would bring even more benefit to the £298.5m investment into the route.
It is perhaps one of the most obvious ways to make more out of the existing network by running trains on new routes to make rail a faster and more convenient option from new stations such as this?
If you agree, please sign the petition (link at top of the page), and thanks for reading.
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Thanks, RH.
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The Northumberland Coast Loop 