The Northumberland Line has just passed the 230,000 passenger mark according to a recent headline in RAIL Magazine, and a large part of this success is likely due to the line being within the Tyne and Wear Metro fare zone, meaning a low price cap for tickets, but could this zone be extended northwards to Berwick Upon Tweed for the route to Newcastle via Bedlington?
Fixed Fares to Ashington, Why Not Extend these to Berwick Upon Tweed?
The Northumberland Line is classed as part of the T&W Metro system, having a simple and easy to understand fares structure built around single tickets, providing excellent value for money, for example the ‘peak single’ from Ashington to Newcastle is only £3, and a return is £6, with discounts for travelling off-peak and if using a Railcard.
This makes it easy to calculate the cost of travel, which on the ECML stations at places like Alnmouth or Berwick, can be highly variable by comparison, and acts to effectively discourage rail use by making the fares volatile and unpredictable.
Below are some screenshots of the Northumberland Line website to illustate the point about the simplicity of its fare structure, a key part of the success of the route.
What I would propose as an option is that for rail travel between North Northumberland and Newcastle via the Northumberland Coast Loop (i.e. route via Bedlington), a similar fixed price fare structure could be applied.
This would make at certain trains completely predictable with regards to fare prices, and if combined with a regular service pattern, very predictable journeys too.
As an example, Pegswood station might have a £3 single fare to Newcastle, being a similar distance as Ashington, with fares progressively increasing in price with added distance, for example Alnmouth might be in the ballpark of a peak time £6 single fare, which would line up quite well with the cheapest fare available today (23.4.25) via LNER on the 11:00 departure, but would represent a substantial saving compared to the 10:09 CrossCountry departure.
A range in pricing from £6.30 at the cheapest, to £13.90 (more than double) at the most expensive isn’t in the best interests of driving rail use, it actively deters people away from taking the train, especially when they are on a budget, or when other modes of transport, particularly driving have a more or less fixed cost for fuel and parking etc.
The Northumberland Coast Loop route could be a way to extend a regular Northern service into North Northumberland to complement the existing, but infrequent (twice daily Monday to Saturday) Chathill service. This is not without some challenges, and may in the short-term mean that some smaller intermediate stations such as Acklington, or Widdrington might have a skip-stop pattern.
This happens already at Manors station for Northumberland Line trains, where about half of Northumberland Line services call there; but has reputedly meant that Manors is now much busier than it was before as it is still representing an improvement to services; for North Northumberland, even moving to a handful (5) of trains per day would be a massive service improvement.
What could also be considered alongside for better integrated transport would be the previous suggestion of towns such as Alnwick, a short distance from the mainline, having a Keswick style ‘virtual railway station‘, so that a through ‘rail ticket’ can be purchased right into Alnwick Town Centre, but a bus is used for the last leg from Alnmouth Station and into the heart of Alnwick, again with a fixed price structure.
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Thanks, RH.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 