A recent article in The Chronicle ‘Northumberland Line has developers ringing council’s planning department ‘off the hook’ since launch last year‘ has some interesting data contained within it, as the line approaches its first full year of operation on Monday 15th December 2025, and the millionth passenger is expected in 2026.
In a presentation ‘Councillors from across the North East were presented with an update on the success of the Northumberland Line, ranging from a new influx of Ashington pupils now attending Newcastle College to the carbon emissions saved with fewer car journeys. In addition, elected members at Monday morning’s North East Combined Authority scrutiny committee were informed about a huge surge in interest from developers since the line’s first year in operation.‘
This shows how the Northumberland Line has worked well to take people to education and work, reducing the number of car journeys (and therefore surely easing the issues on junctions such as Moor Farm Roundabout etc if people are taking the train rather than driving), and that land around the Northumberland Line is now primed for development opportunities with such a good rail link being provided, with the planning department having ‘the phone ringing off the hook’, implying a surge in demand for developments in the area.
‘The line is also expected to unlock around £450m in economic benefits through boosting employment and connecting the South East of Northumberland to Newcastle, and vice versa.‘
For an investment of £336.4m to date, the expected unlocking of £450m in economic benefits represents a longer term ‘profit’ from the route of £113.6m, a very sound return on the investment made, and suggests a benefit:cost ratio BCR of around 1.34, weaker than an earlier expectation of around 1.5, but perhaps unavoidable due to the difficulties and delays in opening the route, with stations at Bedlington, and Northumberland Park, whilst largely complete, still awaiting their opening dates.
That being said, by almost every metric of use, the Northumberland Line has been an enormous success, passenger numbers have been HUGE for the line compared to forecasts, with trains struggling to cope with passenger loadings, and happily proving the projects critics wrong by a huge margin.
When the next stations at Bedlington, but especially Northumberland Park open, the line is likely to see another surge in use, as the interchange with the Tyne and Wear Metro is highly likely to prove very useful for passengers travelling to and from places in North Tyneside via Northumberland Park.
Edinburgh link from SE Northumberland for even bigger economic benefits?
While the Northumberland Line is a sure success as a route plying to and from Newcastle Upon Tyne, it could also be, as this campaign has long set out, a secondary route between Newcastle and the Scottish city of Edinburgh if the existing link from Bedlington towards Pegswood was brought into use, presently only used for a handful of railfreight services, but bringing into passenger use could be a relatively low-cost boost to the region?
If some stopping trains running between Edinburgh and Newcastle were to be diverted over a large portion of the Northumberland Line (Bedlington to Newcastle, so only omitting Ashington), this could be a further major boost to communities along the line of route.
Towns such as Blyth, which is the largest in Northumberland could then boast of direct rail connectivity to Edinburgh, making it much more attractive for business investment into the town, thereby creating more jobs and wealth, working towards lifting the area out from being one of the most economically deprived in the county of Northumberland.
A wider set of direct rail connections, especially InterCity ones would bring towns such as Blyth more on par with its smaller neighbour several miles away at Morpeth, which has long benefitted from its suberb range of rail connections, as headlines such as ‘Lumo reveals that its journeys between Morpeth and London have increased by 50 per cent in the past two years‘
Services to Morpeth in the above article were described by Cllr Richard Wearmouth as “Punctual, fast and cost effective, they are such an asset for our town.”, and arguably a service using the Northumberland Coast Loop would give similar benefits to towns such as Blyth, as well as areas such as North Tyneside? Maybe in the near future, councillors from towns such as Blyth may be able to make similar statements?
If you’d like to see Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park gain a direct rail link to Edinburgh, please sign the petition here to show our local leaders how strongly such a service is desired, with 1040 at the time of writing, but more always welcome to sign it!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 