Yesterday, on Sunday 19th October 2025, Blyth Bebside station became the fourth of the six new stations on the Northumberland Line to open, and from footage and images shared online, which shows the great active travel connections into Blyth (new bridge over the A189 Spine Road), as well some of the first trains to call at the station.
The two stations that now remain to be opened are Bedlington, and Northumberland Park, both of which which are due to open in early 2026.
For now, the Northumberland Line largely operates as a shuttle between Ashington and Newcastle Central, with some trains soon to be extended on Sundays only to the MetroCentre, but the line could be used for more…
Blyth Bebside to Edinburgh?
This campaign, which seeks to see the ‘Northumberland Coast Loop’ developed as a regularly operated route, which would see trains from Newcastle take the Northumberland Line to Bedlington, but then take the westward line through Hepscott towards Pegswood, rejoining the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth North Junction, and run to Berwick-Upon-Tweed for local trains (Newcastle to Berwick via Blyth); but also long distance, semi-fast (limited stop) services between Newcastle and Edinburgh to run via this route too.
Blyth Bebside is one of the ‘key’ stations on this proposed route, where we suggest that semi-fast trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh via ‘the loop’ would call, as well as the yet to be completed Northumberland Park.
Our petition for the route is making steady progress, and is steadily progressing towards 1000 signatures, if you’d like to sign it, please do so!
Why Blyth Bebside?
This station was selected as it is perhaps the most ideally suited of the N’land Line stations to act as a ‘hub’ for long distance services as it is in a very strategic location; it serves the largest town in Northumberland directly, but compared to the other station serving the town of Blyth at Newsham, Blyth Bebside is in an easier to reach location from other towns.
Bedlington was discounted for semi-fast services due to its very constained location for platforms; which are limited by the track layout, with Bedlington Junction at the NW end, and level crossing at the opposite SE end, and a further junction for sidings only just beyond that!
In contrast, Blyth Bebside is a much simpler site, with a fair distance between the platforms and the level crossing/bridge over the A189 a fair distance in each direction, potentially allowing relatively easy platform lengthening if required in future.
Active Travel (Walking, Cycling, etc)
Blyth Bebside station is nearby to the coastal Route 1 on the National Cycle Network, and is also at a convergence of many other footpaths and cycle routes connecting Bedlington (Bebside Furnace Road towards the Bank Top pub in Bedlington) and Cramlington (such as Hathery Lane towards the former Three Horseshoes pub/East Hartford), making it ideally placed for multiple towns to connect into.
Buses and Cars
Blyth Bebside station is adjacent to the crossroads of the A189 Spine Road and A193, which are both major bus routes into and out of Blyth, as well as easily accessible to motorists from a very wide area surrounding the station. This again makes Blyth Bebside ideally placed as a strategic interchange between rail and bus services, as well as those arriving by taxi, or own private car.
Rail
The station is also in a great position for rail connectivity; towns like Ashington that cannot be served directly by the proposed loop route will still have an easy interchange at Blyth Bebside as all trains running to Ashington pass via that route anyway, the same applying for extension of the line to Woodhorn, Newbiggin by the Sea, or Lynemouth.
Example Trip
Ashington to Edinburgh: a hypothetical trip from a home in Ashington to visit Edinburgh could be done in multiple ways, a quick taxi/lift/car trip down the A189 to Blyth Bebside, and join a northbound train there for the Scottish capital, or using the railway, just two stops down the Northumberland Line, over the bridge to change platforms and again board the northbound rail servive to Edinburgh.
In reverse, the same would apply, arriving back at Blyth Bebside, it would either be getting a taxi/lift/car back to Ashington, or jumping onto a Northumberland Line train to head home.
Blyth Bebside vs Central Station or Morpeth
InterCity rail services being introduced between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth hold a few key advantages over the present status quo of connecting onto long-distance services via Newcastle Central or Morpeth.
Newcastle Central is too far south; adding significantly to journey times
Travel times on the Northumberland Line from Blyth Bebside to Newcastle Central are usually 28-30mins, then entail a waiting time at Newcastle (to get off N’land Line train, change platforms and join next service is usually at least 5 minutes to allow sufficient time for change of train), then even the fastest services take approx 15mins to pass through Pegswood an overall total time of around 50 minutes (as borne out by Google Maps below, which involves a change of train at Manors), compared to a direct trip from Blyth Bebside to Pegswood via Hepscott, which takes around 15 minutes by rail.
This means that from Blyth Bebside, the direct route would represent an approximately 30 minutes (half an hour) of time saved in each direction compared to travelling south into Newcastle to change train, then travel north again, for a day-out, that would mean an extra hour overall, either spent enjoying an activity North Northumberland or Scotland, or being home earlier at the end of day out.
Not only that, but a smaller station is easier to understand for less familiar rail users, and if travelling with luggage, small children etc (being ‘encumbered’), reducing the number of changes of train, and ideally travelling on a single seat as much as possible is helpful to promote rail use to those less confident with using passenger trains.
Morpeth is awkward to reach
Again from Blyth Bebside, Morpeth is an awkward station to reach; there is no proposal for a direct rail service to Morpeth from here (there is a proposal for a Newcastle to Bedlington via Morpeth route), meaning that to reach Morpeth by rail, would mean change of train at Bedlington, again adding to journey times, and is relatively inconvenient given such short distances.
A solution to this would be to extend services to Blyth Bebside/Newsham rather than terminating at Bedlington, but this may require additional infrastructure such as a turnback siding being constructed, and may not fit within the current gap in the timetable allowing a ‘Bedlington and back’ extension of the route as proposed.
Using buses, though direct is also a very slow option, with a combination of the X9 and 43 buses (again change of bus mid-journey), taking 36 minutes, only five minutes faster than cycling.
As can be seen above even for buses running reasonably directly between Blyth Bebside and Morpeth stations, the journey times are poor, taking at least 36 minutes for the trip, and that involving a change of bus from the X9 onto the 43 at Heather Lea. The 2 service offers a direct link, but there no time saving, taking 36 minutes for the trip.
Morpeth is a fairly short drive, being around 15 minutes, but that adds to congestion problems in Blyth, Bedlington, Choppington and Morpeth itself, and with a highly constrained car park at Morpeth, which is also often quite full, and parking charges can also be significant, that acts to deter rail use, compared to driving the entire journey instead.
Direct trains to Edinburgh from Blyth Bebside could be an answer to these issues?
Given the challenges of ‘travelling south to go north’ to change at Newcastle (and also using up limited seating capacity to do so), or getting across to Morpeth to catch trains there, the logical solution might be to take the trains to the people; after all, Blyth IS the largest Northumberland town, so surely deserves at least some direct connectivity to other major cities, even if just a fraction of what its much smaller counterpart Morpeth gets.
Direct trains could also have the benefit of adding to seating capacity; an additional train running InterCity between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside, alongside the existing Northumberland Line trains would put more seats onto the route, allowing people to do Newcastle to Blyth Bebside, whilst those headed northwards would jump into the now empty seat, and wouldn’t be using seats towards Newcastle and towards Morpeth either, thereby releasing capacity on other trains.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 