In an article today from The Chronicle, the Chathill Rail Action Group (CRAG) have presented a postcard to North East Mayor Kim McGuinness to call for more rail services to Chathill Station, between Alnmouth, and Berwick-Upon-Tweed stations on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) in Northumberland.
This campaign supports this aim of an enhanced service to Chathill, alongside a new £15m station at Belford, and wider upgrade to the ECML route to see services to stations both large and small improved.
We are also calling for investment to ensure that sufficient capacity is also available for the new Northumberland Coast Loop, which would see a new Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh passenger route developed, giving better to, from, and within Northumberland connections, linking the northern end of the highly successful Northumberland Line back onto the ECML to give towns such as Bedlington, Blyth and Seaton Delaval, as well as the larger conurbation of North Tyneside better rail connectivity.
Schemes such as better rail services and even completely new stations such as proposed one at Belford are far more cost effective than schemes like dualling the A1, a £15m new station is very cost-effective compared to the expected £500m+ cost of dualling just 13 miles of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham, and the Northumberland Coast Loop, while not fully costed, uses an existing rail route, in daily use on the ECML and Northumberland Line, with the short link from Bedlington to Pegswood the only section not in regular passenger use, used by freight and the empty passenger trains heading to Ashington each morning.
The petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop route from Newcastle, via Bedlington, to Edinburgh presently stands at 519 signatures as of tonight (9.6.25), and could be a good way to deliver both a better local service to stations such as Chathill, whilst also giving a wider range of connections to, from, and within Northumberland too.
I would like to wish CRAG well with their campaign, and hopefully the N.C.L. will come alongside or swiftly behind!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 