Yesterday was my first opportunity to travel to Blyth Bebside station, the most recent station to open on the Northumberland Line (fourth of the six new stations), and a potentially key one on the Northumberland Coast Loop, for reasons which will hopefully become clearer as this blog post progresses.
Northumberland Coast Loop Edinburgh to Newcastle rail service via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park
Blyth Bebside is the first of the potential ‘semi-fast’ station stops completed, with Northumberland Park due in early 2026 by most recent estimates. Taking a good look at the station was to confirm that this station would be ideally placed for such a service, which to me it would be; it direct serves the largest town in Northumberland (Blyth), but is also well connected to many of the other largest towns too.
Cramlington (second largest Northumberland town) is easily accessed via the A189 Spine Road, or the A193/B1505 Horton Road, and has already existing bus links (Arriva X9) via Bebside Front Street running near to the station. The A189 route would also provide an easy direct bus link between the station and NSECH hospital a few miles down the road.
Hathery Lane, linking the former Three Horseshoes pub and East Hartford area to Blyth Bebside via a car free route could also be upgraded and a shortcut created at the station end (linking Errington Street to Hathery Lane to the south of Front Street) to make a much easier and safer active travel route to the station too.
Ashington (third largest town) is also easily accessed via the A189 Spine Road, and also has existing bus links such as the Arriva 1 headed into Cowpen Road, as well as the obvious interchange between rail services at Blyth Bebside station itself (all Northumberland Line trains call at the station, with proposed new stations at Woodhorn and Newbiggin by the Sea also feeding through the station.
Ashington is probably a bit too distant to consider active travel for most, but extending the cycle route that parallels the A189 further towards Blyth Bebside, and perhaps connect the Wansbeck bridge and Blyth (Kitty Brewster bridge) direct would make this more viable.
Bedlington (fourth largest town in Northumberland) is similarly to Ashington linked by bus and rail connections to Blyth Bebside, and easily reached via the A193 route from the Bedlington Red Lion ‘top end’ area, as well as the A189 Spine Road, as is also well connected via Bebside Furnace Road as a potential active travel route.
As can be seen above, the four largest towns in Northumberland, together making up a vast proportion of residents in the county as a whole could be served well by Blyth Bebside, as well as smaller communities nearby, for example Choppington, Stakeford, Cambois etc.
This station would also have far easier access than is presently possible to/from Morpeth railway station, which is not linked directly by rail ( Morpeth may get some connectivity to Bedlington in the near future, but no direct link from Blyth, Ashington etc meaning two changes of train to reach destination such as Edinburgh).
If you’d like to support the campaign for the Newcastle to Edinburgh via Blyth rail service, please sign the petition here: https://c.org/zThXj8HBpY
Returning to the Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside trip
Early that morning, I embarked from my local station at Alnmouth bound for Blyth Bebside via Newcastle Central, and the first train was Voyager 220001, working 1V52 between Edinburgh and Darlington, departing on-time at 07:08.
Interestingly, this unit would be one easily capable of doing the direct ‘Northumberland Coast Loop’ route via Bedlington, being a four coach diesel train; no problems with the absence of overhead wires, or the length of the train being longer than the platform (which again will be addressed further on in the blog too).
The only obvious requirements that are outstanding would be route clearance for the Voyager fleet via Bedlington, development of appropriate driver knowledge (all drivers need to know their train route in high levels of detail for safety), and appropriate paths to be able to deviate from the east coast main line (ECML) from Morpeth North Junction to Benton Junction.
A direct run from Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside is possible due to the Morpeth North Curve, which allows trains from the north to curve off the ECML shortly after crossing Pegswood Viaduct over the River Wansbeck, bound for Bedlington. This route would be a single seat (no need to change trains), and would save approximately 30-40 minutes compared to the indirect route via Newcastle.
Alnmouth to Central Station
Returning to yesterdays trip, the Voyager run was timetabled to take 26 minutes to reach Newcastle, and due to arrive at 07:34, which it did on-time.
Changing at Central Station
As can be seen below, arrival on the CrossCountry Voyager was on-time into Newcastle, allowing a full 14 minutes to change train, with some of this time used to nip into Sainburys at the station.
The next leg of the journey was aboard Northern 156463, standing in Platform 1 at Newcastle, and it got away bang on time working the 2T11 at 07:48 bound for Ashington.
Boots on the ground at Blyth Bebside station
Again arriving bang on schedule, at 08:17, 156463 dropped me off at the brand new Blyth Bebside Station, somewhat breezy and cool in yesterdays wind!
Possible platform extensions at Blyth Bebside?
Like the rest of the Northumberland Line stations, the design is utilitarian and functional, but nicely finished off. It would outwardly appear from the station site that extension of the platforms to serve longer trains would be possible here, with an ample length of line in either direction to allow for future expansion of the station, should longer trains of nine or ten carriages be used to serve the Northumberland Coast Loop.
After exiting the station via the Heather Lea estate, it brought me out onto Front Street in Bebside, part of the A193 route, which starts at the Bedlington Red Lion roundabout, and heads through Blyth, towards Tynemouth and ends in central Newcastle.
This road is a major bus route in/out of Blyth, served by the regular Arriva X9 service between Blyth Bus station and Haymarket via Cramlington Town Centre.
New bridge to link Blyth Bebside to Blyth
As part of the new station, and to avoid large numbers of pedestrians and cyclists using the A193 bridges to reach the station, a new bridge has been built over the A189 Spine Road, creating a much more traffic free route between the town of Blyth and Blyth Bebside station.
What was also clear from a brief observation is that drop-off/pick-up of passengers using the station on the ASDA/Starbucks side of the line will potentially be quite significant, as it avoids the congestion associated with driving to the station car park on the far side of the A189. Potentially the ASDA/Starbucks outlet on the eastern end of the bridge will stand to benefit from this passing trade though.
The return trip to Alnmouth
Once again, 156463 was the train of the day on the Northumberland Line stretch of the trip, arriving on-time once again on 2T18 at 10:08 for the journey back to Central Station. Leaving Bebside the train had a good number of passengers aboard, but towards Newcastle, the two carriage train was running well filled indeed, demonstrating the clearly high demand on this newly opened line.
Arrival back at Newcastle was again on-time at 10:34, with a shorter 9 minute wait for changing onto the LNER service to head home.
Of particular note on this service was the guard going the extra mile for two wheelchair users who boarded the train, and were sat nearby on the way into Newcastle.
Last leg back to Alnmouth
The last of the four trains yesterday was LNER 801229 working 1S06, departing Newcastle at 10:43. Not letting the side down, all trains ran perfectly to time, were all clean and comfortable and staff encountered on each were great; the lady checking tickets on the LNER train in particular was very cheerful and friendly.
Conclusion
All in all, yesterday was one of those days that shows the railway at its best; everything ran like clockwork, and everyone got where they needed to be on-time, and ALL of the staff were great, all friendly and helpful whenever they were interacting with passengers.
Journey Times
Compared to travelling by bus, the rail route via Newcastle is still a much faster trip, but still is over an hour, compared to driving between Alnmouth/Alnwick and Blyth in c.40mins. If the Northumberland Coast Loop route is implemented, it could reduce journey times by rail significantly, probably to around a 30 minute trip between Blyth Bebside and Alnmouth stations, representing a 30-40 minute reduction in journey time, and also elimination of a change of train.
Capacity
With the lack of available Sprinter trains to make all Northumberland Line trains four carriages in length, the proposed use of units like the Voyagers could increase seating substantially if added alongside the existing Northumberland Line passenger trains.
If, for example 220 001 had ran via Bedlington to reach Blyth Bebside direct from Alnmouth, and ran alongside the Sprinters such as 156 463, it would have added extra seats towards Newcastle from Blyth Bebside, but also would have released capacity on other trains, as I would not have needed to occupy one seat south into Newcastle, then another seat north towards Blyth Bebside.
This could go some way to freeing up some extra capacity on the existing Northumberland Line trains, allowing the line to carry more people and provide more economic return on the investment, as easier and faster rail access to/from north Northumberland and Scotland to towns such as Blyth will drive businesses to base themselves there.
As stated in previous blog posts, Edinburgh and Glasgow are linked by FOUR rail routes, whilst Newcastle and Edinburgh presently only has one; the Northumberland Coast Loop route, if implemented could become a second route between the two cities, boosting the economy of the region. Let’s hope that it is duly considered as a next phase of the rail network in Northumberland.
If you’d like to support the petition, please do so here: https://www.change.org/p/start-a-newcastle-edinburgh-rail-service-via-blyth-bebside-and-northumberland-park/exp/cl_/cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB/10/679068674?recruiter=679068674&recruited_by_id=f8c66ca0-ee1b-11e6-b726-5dfd818fd527&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB%3A10
The Northumberland Coast Loop 