The Summer 2025 issue of the NEPTUG Newsletter features a mention of the campaign for the Northumberland Coast Loop as one of the proposed expansions of the highly successful Northumberland Line.
Thanks to NEPTUG for asking for a contribution towards the Newsletter and hopefully a route that can be introduced rapidly, as it is already in place, it simply needs the service to run!
The Berwick – Blyth – Newcastle Coastal Rail Route
As we often reiterate here, the proposed service starting at Newcastle Upon Tyne and running through Nortumberland Park, Blyth Bebside, Bedlington, Pegswood, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), Berwick Upon Tweed, and other Scottish stations such as Reston, Dunvar etc on the route to Edinburgh route is feasible today, as all the track required already is in place; as demonstrated by a recent railtour operated by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, named ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’.
The map above was taken from ‘The Seven Counties Rambler‘ railtour brochure of March 2025, which traversed the route in the late evening of 8th March. A video of this railtour passing through Northumberland Park on that day can be seen here: https://youtu.be/Yf2SSoniR4E?feature=shared
The Northumberland Coast Loop proposal is just for a rail service, with all of the stations on the route map below either already built and serving passengers, or in the final stages of contruction and due to open later this year (2025),
While line capacity on the Northumberland Line and East Coast Main Line (ECML) might pose some challenges, it should be far from impossible to deliver at least a handful of Newcastle – Edinburgh via Bedlington services to start with (perhaps five trains per day in each direction), with potential for such a route to perhaps run hourly in time.
As can be seen above, as of 2nd June, the petition for the route stands strong at 445 signatures, with more being added daily! If you’d like to sign too, please do so here: https://chng.it/J8DxHqpWdf
Alnwick – Alnmouth Station – Warkworth and Amble ‘Bus Meets Train’ Service
Very much in the same vein of providing better public transport connections is another petition for improved bus connections between Alnwick, Amble, and Warkworth to Alnmouth Railway Station.
This proposal is to better reconnect the North Northumberland towns of Alnwick and Amble, which have long been off the rail network, into the key railway hub for the area at Alnmouth Station.
The petition again for this is performing well, and if you’d like to add your signature, please do so here: https://chng.it/B4RwwtHnJc
Improve Existing Buses?
This could be partially delivered through some improvements to existing bus routes such as the X18 and X20 services, where as can be seen below, the X18 omits the station on its route, whilst the X20 travels up South View and Curly Lane to provide a proper interchange between bus and rail services.
Taken together, these two services give around two buses per hour near to the station, but the variation in timings means that buses are not running a consistent timetable, for example the X18 towards Newcastle at 07:03 is then followed by the 07:41 X20 (38mins later), then the next X18 at 08:13 (32 mins later).
A simplification of the timetable could give a much more understandable ‘clockface’ schedule, with arrivals/departures at xx:15 and xx:45 appearing to be reasonable amendments given buses running near to these times already.
That being said, Arriva bus services have been remarked upon by a number of people on social media as having a reputation for being late and/or unreliable (buses failing to turn up at all), which if making rail connections could mean failing to make your inward or outward trip, and with consequences in costs for rebooking rail travel or needing to hire taxis etc.
Hopefully Arriva can run their buses to a more sensible and understandable clockface timetable, and run their buses on-time and reliably as a good starting point?
New Bus Service?
There could be an advantage however in running a dedicated bus route alongside longer distance buses, which would form a link between Alnwick Bus Station (a possible site for a ‘virtual railway station’, similar to that done in Keswick, Cumbria), Alnmouth Railway Station, Warkworth Castle, and Amble High Street.
This new service could be operated by other bus companies such as Glen Valley Tours, the operator which runs local services such as the 472 between Shilbottle and Barresdale (itself a service that might usefully be extended from Shilbottle to Alnmouth Railway Station via High Buston).
To and from Alnwick, rather than around it?
In 2024, a free local bus ran around within Alnwick itself, providing connections between attractions inside of Alnwick, but within a compact and walkable town, it could be arguably better to improve the public transport offer to and from Alnwick as whole; it need not be a free service, but it could, like the free bus service last year be supported/branded by larger attractions such as Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden, and bus tickets maybe could even be integrated into pre-booked attraction tickets?
Please leave a comment below with your thoughts and share where you usually do!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 