It has been good to see the BBC News coverage recently (14.10.25) about lack of direct bus services to the new station at Newsham on the Northumberland Line, after our blog post on 2nd October titled ‘New railway station at Newsham; but no buses to it!‘.
The company operating buses, Arriva (now owned by a Miami based investment fund called I Squared Capital, having been sold by Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway in 2024, who in turn had owned it since 2010.) has seemingly refused to serve the platform adjacent stop, stating that the buses already call a short distance away, and that adding extra time to journeys would be ‘without much benefit‘, according to the Arriva North East spokesperson.
To quote directly from the above sale annoucement however, ‘Mike Cooper, CEO of Arriva Group, said: “We want to see a future where people choose to leave their car at home, a future with less traffic congestion and cleaner air.‘ So surely serving Newsham station (and other railway stations) better is surely a clear way to achieve this goal?
Improved connections to and from the railway station, delivered through a fully integrated bus service, is likely to help with the choice of ‘leaving the car at home‘, which especially in a town as congested as Blyth, would make a huge difference almost immediately, and especially to the parking problems being experienced around the new station Newsham due to high demand for rail services, but the relatively poor inward or outward public transport connections mean that many view driving to the station as the only viable option.
Whilst the existing bus stops may, or may not be far away from the station depending on your own opinion, an ‘ideal’ situation surely is an ‘as close as possible‘ interchange between rail and bus services; so where feasible, a dedicated station bus stop on a turning circle or within a station car park is clearly the preferable option to be served compared to a ‘nearby street’.
For everyone, but especially those with mobility issues, travelling with items of luggage, small children etc, or even just in poor weather conditions such as rain, snow, or wind; a close interchange is obviously of huge benefit, and worth the minor detour (as shown below) of the bus service itself to serve the station directly. Even in perfect weather, an easily visble bus stop near the platform is more obvious than needing directions to a bus stop a few streets away.
Whilst Arriva can be forgiven to some extent for Newsham being a relatively ‘new’ station, it having been open for less a year (opened in March 2025), and thus sticking with its existing bus routes for a while; now that the station, and the Northumberland Line more broadly is proving so popular, with over 650,000 passengers, it is perhaps time to adapt to this major change and begin running there directly?
Arriva elsewhere in Northumberland
This is a wider and more long-running issue with Arriva at other stations such as in Cramlington or Morpeth where their buses have never, to my knowledge, served the station turning circles, but other bus operators have done this from time to time, showing that it CAN be done.
In North Northumberland, there is also a stong desire to see better connections from towns such as Amble and Alnwick to Alnmouth station, with a petition now standing at 826 signatures for a dedicated ‘Bus Meets Train’ service to augment other buses to and from the station.
With buses receiving subsidies from the North East Combined Authority for things like the £2.50 fare cap, hopefully a better integation of buses and trains might be achieved by making serving stations a condition of subsidy?
As the major operator of buses in Northumberland, it is clear that more could be done throughout the county by Arriva to ensure better bus and rail integration, which has multiple benefits for local residents, but also for the many tourists to our region, there is literally a zero downside to a better integrated public transport system.
Another recent article highlighting tourism issues identified by Mayor McGuinness is a good case in point; buses linking to rail services in a co-ordinated fashion would help make many attractions easier to visit, especially as a bus can act as a mobile billboard for them, such as the ‘Poison Garden’ branded bus, as seen in Alnwick Bus Station below.
Could there be ‘Blyth Battery’ or ‘Bamburgh Castle’ branded bus services too?
Public Transport: Integration is better than false competition.
This is an issue that stems more broadly from the privatisation and deregulation of buses back in the 1980’s, so that rather than co-ordinated and integrated system, public transport still takes a Victorian ‘competitive’ approach that the bus services are attempting to compete with trains, when really both would benefit from working as part of a single larger system.
Buses are advantageous in providing access to places a train cannot viably reach; central Blyth is unlikely to ever again see rail services due to the loss of the branchline into the centre and the development on the routes into the town since then have probably precluded it being rebuilt, but an integrated system of buses linking both Newsham and Blyth Bebside station into the town centre is a reasonable alternative.
Similarly, other stations such as Morpeth or Alnmouth, that act as hubs for a much wider area, and offer UK wide connections are relatively poorly connected by buses, which is an absurd situation in many ways.
Indeed, better integration of buses and rail would likely boost Arriva by additional ticket sales; more than compensating for the tiny additional distance and time required.
As an example, the fastest Blyth Bus Station to Haymarket service, the X10, takes 54mins for its trip end to end; but would three minutes extra, to run via the Newsham Station bus stop make that much difference?
How far away are the alternative stops?
Using Google Maps, an approximate journey time can be ascertained for the walking distances to and from Newsham station to both the Blagdon Drive bus stops (for the X8 service to/from Blyth Town Centre), and the Park Farm Villas bus stops (for the X10 and X30 buses).
Whilst neither of the current stops could be described as ‘a million miles away’ from the station, they are still a fair walking distance away, and especially for a disabled person or someone unfamiliar with the area could present issues, for the fairly for a simple and very modest short re-routing of a bus service to obviate the whole issue entirely.
Blagdon Drive Bus Stop to Newsham Station
The bus stops on Blagdon Drive for the X8, which are located just to the east of the new roundabout to the east of Newsham station (map below orientated east up), are the closest stops to the new bus stop within the station car park, but would also mean the smallest detour of bus route to serve the station bus stop, as the route already crosses to/from the east side of the Northumberland Line.
As can be seen above, the Blagdon Drive bus stop is a fairly modest 4 minute, 290m distant, and mostly flat walking route for passengers changing between the X8 bus and trains calling at Newsham station, but as can be seen below, a deviation of the bus route would represent an approximate two minutes of additional time compared to present situation of ignoring the stop.
With such a minor diversion of the bus route (c.2 mins) in exchange for a much improved connection between the X8 and Northumberland Line rail services, then hopefully Arriva will change their mind about this route being amended to serve the station, especially if requested as part of the subsidy arrangements that companies like Arriva receive for operating buses at reasonable cost.
Park Farm Villas to Newsham Station
The current bus routes of the X10 and X30 run near to the Northumberland Line, but instead of passing over the line near Newsham station, instead head north and in parallel along the B1523, passing near to the station.
As can be seen, again a circa 4 minute, 300m walk isn’t a huge distance, but for those with mobility problems, heavy luggage, small children, or even those simply being unfamiliar with the area, a bus stop well out of sight of the station is not a welcoming way to encourage use.
As can be seen from the maps above, diversion of the X8, X10, and X30 buses to serve Newsham Station is not an outrageous request, it would represent a matter of under 4 minutes to run the bus via Newsham Stations own bus stop, even for those having to cross the new bridge and go back again, yet would provide massively better bus & rail integration.
Hopefully Arriva may test out a diversion of the bus routes to at least assess the impact of the change as a compromise?
The Northumberland Coast Loop 