A recent article in The Northern Echo ‘Acklington among Britain’s quietest train stations in UK‘, shows that whilst still in the 50 least used stations in the UK, with just 856 entries and exits in the 2024/25 railway ticketing year, this was a major increase on the previous year, which had 550 in 2023/24.
This growth is significant as the services to/from Acklington would be considered by very many as ‘poor’, the station having a total of three trains per day Monday to Saturday, and no Sunday services at all.
These comprise entirely of the ‘Chathill Flyer’, which calls once heading southbound in the morning, and in the evening calls northbound, then southbound again on its way back to Newcastle.
Considerations of closure?
A concerning statement at the bottom of the article reads: ‘However, like many rural stops, it faces increasing pressure as operators and government bodies consider the viability of extremely low-usage stations, a topic that regularly resurfaces whenever ORR data is published.‘
This ‘viability of low-usage stations’ is a veiled threat of total closure, and it is a genuine concern for many smaller stations, where services have been reduced to pretty minimal levels for decades, resulting in very low passenger figures; not just at Acklington, but other small stations like Pegswood, Chathill, and Widdrington, all smaller stops between the more major ones at Morpeth, Alnmouth, Berwick Upon Tweed.
Closure of rural stations like Acklington would, however likely prove a backward step, when opening of new stations such as Belford are being proposed elsewhere on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), and the recent reopenings of stations such as East Linton, and Reston in Scotland have proven highly successful.
What is instead needed is an uplift in the services that call at the smaller stations such as Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington, and Pegswood.
The recent rise in passenger volumes at Acklington is an encouraging sign of more people using rail, but the phrase ‘use it, or lose it’ is clearly apt for the situation seen here; a station carrying less than 1000 passengers per annum, year after year, will always have an axe looming above it.
Save the Stations: Travel by Train
Therefore, to help keep these stations, and to help push smaller ones like Acklington out of the ‘least used 50’, a simple solution is to go out and travel by train to or from that station; it might not be the most convenient way to go somewhere, or get back, but the only way to prove that these stations are wanted by the community is for the community to use them.
When you can, travel to/from Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington, and Pegswood by train.
With the 2025/26 year already several months in, try and travel to/from or between from these stations by train as soon as you can, invite friends and family to travel with you too, every trip makes a difference with such small numbers, so hop on the train (with your tickets of course), and help save the stations.
In addition, write to your local councillors, and your local MP (David Smith MP for North Northumberland covers all stations between Morpeth and Berwick, so if you live in his constituency, please write to him), to help make the case to keep the stations we already have, as well as get more trains serving them, and even opening more new stations at places like Belford, and Beal.
So as part of your Christmas 2025, and New Year 2026, please travel by train and write to your local elected representatives!
Let’s hope that enough people can take part to push the small stations like Acklington over 1000 passengers a year for the next round of data, so please jump on the train as soon as you can, even if just for a jolly!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 