Presentation on the Past
On Tuesday 15th April, I attended an excellent presentation, hosted by Morgan Sindall and delivered by local historian Ed Orwin called ‘Newcastle to Ashington By Train: A Journey Through Time’.
This was hosted at the brilliant Energy Central Learning Hub building on Quay Road in Blyth, Northumberland, and in the room were a number of displays about the Northumberland Line, from the origins of the railways in the area, through to today.
The presentation showed the strong focus of the then ‘Blyth and Tyne’ railway in moving coal as it’s primary purpose, with passenger use very much an afterthought in many cases.
It was a very good grounding in why the railway is the shape it is today; one example being that the sheer expense of the wooden viaduct over the River Wansbeck meant that the proposed extension to Warkworth Harbour (present day Amble) was delayed, and ultimately never built.
If you get an opportunity to see Ed doing this presentation again, please try and get to see it, it is packed with information and you can see his real passion for the topic shine through too.
Towards the end, a few teasers of future expansions were suggested, such as to Woodhorn, and Newbiggin by the Sea, both of which would be welcome additions to the network.
Forward into the Future
After leaving the meeting, I needed to make my way home by public transport, having been dropped off by my partner on her way home with the kids.
I was very kindly dropped off at Newsham Station by a fellow attendee of the presentation, if you are reading this, thanks again!
The return of the Northumberland Line between Newcastle and Ashington is undoubtedly fantastic, a view obviously shared by the near 250,000 people who have used the line over the last few months since it opened, despite currently only three of the six new stations being open for traffic.
That being said, the above route shows that there could still be more improvements to be made; one of which is to use the direct route from Blyth heading north.
As can be seen from the map below, a connection from Bedlington back onto the East Coast Main Line near Morpeth is already possible using an existing, open line.
Indeed, it is in such a state of readiness that I have actually travelled along it a little over a month ago aboard ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ on 8th March 2025, as operated by SRPS Railtours. Whilst this was a non-stop railtour, it shows the potential of the route as an alternative link between Newcastle and Edinburgh, but serving the SE of Northumberland en-route if trains were to stop at even some of the newly opened stations.
There is potentially a large, untapped market for northbound travel from SE Northumberland northwards into north Northumberland and Scotland, and the petition for a rail service between Newcastle and Edinburgh to run via Blyth Bebside is gaining significant support.
Such a rail link becoming established would have a number of key benefits;
- It would offer better to, from, and within Northumberland connections by adding a fast rail route along the Northumberland Coast to augment bus services, or compete with car travel.
- It would offer a more sustainable transport option compared to driving, and would be accessible by a much wider breadth of society.
- The route would maintain driver and train crew knowledge in the event of disruption (Plessey Viaduct issues in October 2023 for example).
If you can, please sign the petition above, and if you’d like to support the campaign, please feel welcome to drop a donation via my Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/northumberlandcoastloop
The Northumberland Coast Loop 