Following a recent announcement on the expansion of the facilities at Newsham station on the Northumberland Line, which largely comprising of additional car parking being completed, has raised comments about the lack of buses serving the new station.
The huge success of the Northumberland Line, which has had over 500,000 passengers announced some time ago (meaning the current passenger total is likely now far higher given how busy many trains continue to be) has meant that this additional west car park being opened will ease some of the strain on the east car park, as well as the streets of local residents to the station.
High cost of the ‘free’ car parks; £6k+ per space!
Such has been the demand for the new rail services, social media comments have suggested that local streets are acting as an overflow car parking facility for station users, which obviously causes tensions, but car parking spaces are surprisingly expensive to provide, especially when they are often desired to be free at point of use.
As an example of the costs of providing such car parking, the 196 space tarmac car park proposed at Howling Lane in Alnwick, on a former school site that is currently a gravel car park was costed at £960,000 back in 2021, which by simple maths equates to almost £4,900 per space to construct, let alone the ongoing costs of lighting, insurance, maintenance etc, and with the high inflation rates of recent years, that price is likely to be over £6,120 per space when adjusted to August 2025 prices using the Bank of England Inflation Calculator.
Therefore, to build an additional 200 space car park at Newsham; a guide price of at least £1.25m would be likely (£6,120 x 200).
Given the cost overruns on the Northumberland Line, and the recent commitment of additional funds to complete the stations on the line, more being requested to provide more parking is going to be challenging to find.
‘Bus Meets Train’ a fix for Blyth?
A clear solution to this problem would be to make access to Newsham (and other stations) without using a car at all easier, and one option would be to use the already existing bus stop in the east car park, conveniently almost adjacent to the southbound platform.
Whilst the bus stop has been used for rail replacement buses, to my knowledge few, if indeed any service buses have called at this bus stop, with comments on the original post by NCC below suggesting strongly that no bus companies, including Arriva, the main bus operator in the area, has been willing to serve this new bus stop.
A good example of a bus that could serve this bus stop is the Arriva X8 service, that passes over the Northumberland Line itself, and then calls at the nearby Blagdon Drive bus stop, which would need to only make a tiny diversion through the car park to serve the station. Running from early morning to late evening, an interchange with the X8 would be a potentially ideal way to improve bus/rail integration at Newsham station.
This case is perhaps a good example of where the deregulation of buses is a clear policy failure; and that organisations such as NCC should have more power to compel companies like Arriva, who are in receipt of subsidies to provide bus services, to actually serve a multi-million pound new railway station that is on their bus route?
The deregulation of buses is based on flawed principle that bus services like the X8 should be ‘competing’ with the Northumberland Line services as a route into Newcastle from Blyth, where in reality, they should collaborate to their respective strengths.
The strength of the train is a fast, comfortable way to transport large volumes of people, whilst that of the bus is to carry smaller volumes nearer to origin and destination points; few streets in Blyth would be able to have a railway station at the end, but many could and indeed do have a nearby bus stop, with the inherent flexibility to run many varied bus routes to serve different areas of town.
Another comment on the Facebook post suggested running a dedicated shuttle bus between the Town Centre to Newsham, which could be an alternative option, or more ideally a mix of both could be employed?
The Northumberland Line is likely to continue being a massive success with or without bus connectivity, but ‘bus meets train’ is an obvious quick, inexpensive solution to ease traffic problems more broadly; people driving in/out of Blyth to head to Newsham station, or Blyth Bebside when it opens still contributing to congestion within the town just as much as if they drove all the way to their workplace or leisure activity. A simple swap away from their own car, to a short bus trip to the nearby station as an integrated bus+train trip would be a far better solution, especially if ticketing can be changed to a single through ticket too…
Enhancing the Northumberland Line: Beyond Newcastle, and the Edinburgh Extension?
In addition, the stations themselves are well positioned to offer an even more diverse range of rail journeys, Newcastle is the current terminus, but come December, the rumour is that the Gateshead MetroCentre will be a single trip away by rail on a Sunday.
Hopefully, if successful, the Northumberland Line will see this MetroCentre link become a permanent feature on more days of the week, and maybe more routes south beyond Newcastle might prove possible, with the Durham Coast route to Sunderland and Teesside a potential contender too.
Northumberland Coast Loop
The other option is to also look north, and use the route linking Bedlington to Pegswood to give direct access to North Northumberland and Scotland, only built in the 1980’s, and largely for coal to reach the now long-gone Blyth Power Station, this link could see a new rail service to put Blyth on a through route between Edinburgh and Newcastle, making the Northumberland Line into the Northumberland Coast Loop?
The petition for the above proposed route is performing well, and is steadily climbing to 1000 signatures, but if you haven’t already, please feel welcome to add yours here: https://chng.it/zThXj8HBpY.
Thanks for reading! RH.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 