A little update on the campaign to date!
Petition progress to date
As of 21.3.26, the petition for the route (Start a Newcastle – Edinburgh Rail Service via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park on Change.org) now stands at an amazing 1,142 signatures, and steadily continues to grow. Please click the link above if you haven’t already done so.
The above petition is now well ahead of the 2008 SENRUG petition for the passenger reopening of the ‘Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Line’ submitted to 10 Downing Street which attracted 1094 signatures. Whilst now styled as the ‘Northumberland Line’, this route has to date seen over 1.2million passenger journeys, meaning one signature on a rail petition may represent around 1000 real railway journeys (1094×1000=1.09m).
Email correspondence with Cllr Glen Sanderson, Leader of Northumberland County Council
On New Years Eve 2025 (31.12.25) I again wrote to Cllr H.G.H Sanderson, following a previous email on 8th October 2024 which I received a same day response from, with both emails putting forward the progressing campaign for the Northumberland Coast Loop.
To date, I have unfortunately not yet received a reply from my email that was sent on the 31st December 2025, but with Bedlington station due to open on the 29th March 2026, marking the completion of the current scheme, I will once again raise the Northumberland Coast Loop with Cllr Sanderson with a few to taking the proposal forward.
Extra carriages and Newbiggin by the Sea extension announcement?
In a recent video shared on Facebook by Cllr Daniel Carr, Leader of NCC Cllr Glen Sanderson referred to a recent North East Combined Authority (NECA) cabinet meeting that long-sought-after extra carriages were to arrive ‘very soon’ on the Northumberland Line (no actual date confirmed in video clip) and that £450,000 has been made available for a feasibility study into an extension to the Northumberland Line, and that a planning application could be submitted in 2028. It doesn’t refer specifically to Newbiggin by the Sea, but presumably this is the extension being referred to?
That is unless the feasibility study looks into both the Northumberland Coast Loop and Newbiggin by the Sea routes for expansion?
Confirmation on this would be good to see, but the Northumberland Coast Loop has a clear advantage in being a working, but fairly little used freight line through Hepscott connecting two very busy passenger railways (Northumberland Line and the ECML (East Coast Main Line) between Newcastle and Edinburgh together from Bedlington at the east end on the Northumberland Line to Morpeth and Pegswood on the ECML. This line has existed in the current layout since c.1980 when Morpeth North Curve was completed.
In contrast, the Newbiggin extension presumably relies on rebuilding a section of railway into the village, with a branch off the current line to Lynemouth Power Station in the region of where this line passes over the A189; this would need fairly significant earthworks to bring the old alignment to a suitable height to join the existing railway east of the A189 bridge, or even more so to clear the road (including a new bridge span) if the rail junction is placed on the west side of the A189 nearer to Woodhorn Museum?
As stated in many previous blog posts, trains have run on the Northumberland Coast Loop route for decades (as diversions or as railtours, with the last to my knowledge being ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ to successfully run the route on 8th March 2025, just over a year ago.
To me, using ‘the loop’ route first to boost train capacity, and also to give new direct links perhaps makes the most sense over extending the line beyond Ashington; more trains on the ‘core’ section from Bedlington to Newcastle would add more seating capacity both in absolute terms, of the seats in each direction per hour, but also in terms of released capacity; a passenger starting from Ashington could transfer onto a northbound train via Hepscott at Blyth Bebside, which would then free up the seat on the route into Newcastle. Similarly, a person bound for Blyth on the ‘loop’ train would alight at Blyth Bebside, their seat being taken by the passenger from Ashington heading north.
Lets use the existing network to full advantage alongside the reopening long closed routes?
Thanks for reading, RH.
Please note: Header image created by GeminiAI, not a real locomotive/rolling stock/location.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 