A post today in The Chronicle ‘Call for more matchday carriages and better parking on Northumberland Line‘ quoting Cllr Daniel Carr of Newsham rightly points to the need for more capacity on this thriving new line as it is approaching its first anniversary on the 15th December 2025.
The Northumberland Line, which is, as yet only partially complete with four of the six stations open, has despite this carried over 800,000 passengers; with many trains packed to standing room only, and in a few cases being so full as to having to leave passengers on the platforms, clearly capacity is a pressing issue and needs to have extra carriages or trains to resolve it.
Does the Department for Transport have an answer?
The train operator, Northern Trains, which has been run directly by the DfT since February 2020 (previously Arriva Rail North from 2016 to 2020), provides the current Northumberland Line trains, but there is the issue that there is effectively a shortage of the British Rail built Class 156 (built 1987 to 1989) and Class 158 (built 1989 to 1992) trains used on the line, with the youngest examples being 33 years old now, and used widely around the UK.
To try and bring more of these trains in from elsewhere would leave other lines short, and building brand new trains takes time.
For the most part, each 156/158 ‘unit’ is just two carriages (as shown in image above), and a train is formed of either one unit on its own, or two coupled together to give a four carriage ‘set’, but depending on how many units are available, some Northumberland Line trains only run as single units, but where possible, many are strengthened to two units (forming a four carriage train). Three carriage units do operate in some places around the UK, but do not usually get used on the Northumberland Line.
Transpennine Express Trains via Bedlington?
One answer could be to use a totally different type of train to the Class 156 or Class 158 on a large part of the Northumberland Line, and a possible contender could be the Transpennine Express (TPE) Nova 1 fleet, such as 802213 shown below at Edinburgh.
Like Northern, Transpennine Express (TPE) is now run directly by the DfT, so although the two trains look radically different in their design, and have a different colour, in reality they are run by the same operator: the Department for Transport.
Plying up and down the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Newcastle, Morpeth and Edinburgh daily, could these TPE units instead take a small diversion off the ‘mainline’ to augment the overcrowded Northumberland Line trains?
As can be seen from the map above, a train between Newcastle and Edinburgh has the option of two through routes between the cities; it can either run along the current ‘mainline’ through Cramlington, Morpeth and on to Berwick, the border and Scotland, or the lesser used route via Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Bebside, and Bedlington, then rejoin the ECML near Pegswood.
Running the route via Bedlington would allow these trains to form two important functions; firstly they would offer additional seats on the Northumberland Line if operated alongside the Class 156 & Class 158 trains already running, but also would provide a direct connection into North Northumberland and Scotland, assuming a similar stopping pattern to that currently employed by TPE.
As can be seen below on the fleet data sheet, each train has 342 seats, with 318 of those in Standard class, and 24 in First class, but perhaps most importantly, they can operate on both electric power, but also diesel, meaning that the unwired Northumberland Line is no barrier to operating them over these lines.
Train drivers would need to learn the route, and trains would need to be checked that they are OK to run on the line (route clearance), but give that this route is a known potential diversionary route for times of engineering work or closure of the line (as happened at Plessey Viaduct in October 2023 due to bridge damage), this route being used regularly would therefore have wider benefits in making the railway more resilient and capable of dealing with disruptions by keeping driver knowledge fresh and current, and by maintaining route clearance for trains too.
Running 125mph capable trains via Bedlington is nothing new, as in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Class 43 HST’s were to be occasionally seen on passenger carrying diversions via this route, the only significant change today is that with reopened stations, it is possible for the successors to these fast trains to stop to pick up and drop off passengers while going around the Northumberland Coast Loop route…
… as of today, Wednesday 3rd December 2025, the petition for the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop service to run between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park stands at 1037 signatures, so might Cllr Carr, and others in Northumberland call on the DfT to at least look at TPE trains via the Northumberland Coast Loop to ease the crowding issues, as well as further expand the reach, and the success of the Northumberland Line by using the existing link line between Bedlington and Pegswood to make a large part of the Northumberland Line a through route, not just a dead end branch from Newcastle, but instead an alternative route between Newcastle and Edinburgh?
If you agree with this, please sign the petition here: https://c.org/zThXj8HBpY
Thanks, RH.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 