As of today, the last day in November 2025, the campaigns have made significant progress so far, which are outlined briefly below.
Northumberland Coast Loop Rail Service
The current campaign is centred around forming a new Newcastle to Edinburgh InterCity service via Blyth, Northumberland since the petition was launched on the 13th February 2025, to date (30th November 2025) it has reached 1035 signatures.
If you’d like to support this petition further, please sign it here: https://c.org/wbhpn9ffpJ
Alnwick – Alnmouth – Amble Bus Service
The other campaign is for a more reliable and frequent bus service connecting the towns of Alnwick and Amble, to Alnmouth Railway Station.
Both of these towns previously had rail connections to the East Coast Main Line (ECML), with Amble losing is passenger rail services as early as July 1930 due to bus competition, and Alnwick losing its rail link in October 1968, despite growing passenger numbers in the years before closure.
Whilst Alnwick has the Aln Valley Railway rebuilding steadily towards Alnmouth station (around halfway as of November 2025), this is as a preserved heritage railway, and so is highly unlikely to run an everyday, early morning to late evening rail service as ‘mainline’ services such as the Northumberland Line does, most likely running on a selected number of operating days each year.
Alnwick also has the issue that the current terminus is very much ‘edge of town’ at present; with the Lionheart station being built on the eastern side of the A1 Alnwick Bypass, about ¾ of a mile east of the original Alnwick station, due to cost of two bridges, and loss of trackbed into the original stations since closure of the line in 1968. The line has, however, had a major boost since Eden Hill Bridge has had repairs announced, allowing the line in upcoming years to extend east towards Alnmouth, so a rail connection from Alnmouth station to the edge of Alnwick by heritage trains may be possible in the coming years.
The Amble branch has no plans, as far as I am aware of, to be rebuilt, which presumably is due to loss of trackbed after extensive opencast coal workings, and later building developments since closure of the line entirely in 1969.
The need to provide a better public transport connectivity to and from Alnwick and Amble is, however, required now to help ease both traffic problems within both of these towns and more widely, as well as reduce carbon emissions, and rail links to both towns would take a significant amount of time and money, whilst in the case of Alnwick also resulting in displacement of a significant tourist attraction too..
The clearest way to provide a better public transport connection between the towns and the station is, therefore via running a dedicated bus service connecting both towns to the busy railway station at Alnmouth.
As of 30th November 2025, this campaign has 825 signatures, but it is still open, so you can sign it here if you’d like to see this bus route improved: https://c.org/B4RwwtHnJc
Thanks for visiting, and please sign and share this post, or the petitions themselves with friends and family to keep the momentum going!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 