Blyth Bebside Station Opened! Trains to Edinburgh in the future?

Yesterday, on Sunday 19th October 2025, Blyth Bebside station became the fourth of the six new stations on the Northumberland Line to open, and from footage and images shared online, which shows the great active travel connections into Blyth (new bridge over the A189 Spine Road), as well some of the first trains to call at the station.

The two stations that now remain to be opened are Bedlington, and Northumberland Park, both of which which are due to open in early 2026.

For now, the Northumberland Line largely operates as a shuttle between Ashington and Newcastle Central, with some trains soon to be extended on Sundays only to the MetroCentre, but the line could be used for more…

Blyth Bebside to Edinburgh?

This campaign, which seeks to see the ‘Northumberland Coast Loop’ developed as a regularly operated route, which would see trains from Newcastle take the Northumberland Line to Bedlington, but then take the westward line through Hepscott towards Pegswood, rejoining the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth North Junction, and run to Berwick-Upon-Tweed for local trains (Newcastle to Berwick via Blyth); but also long distance, semi-fast (limited stop) services between Newcastle and Edinburgh to run via this route too.

Route map of the proposed ‘Northumberland Coast Loop’, using the existing railfreight link from Bedlington to Pegswood.

Blyth Bebside is one of the ‘key’ stations on this proposed route, where we suggest that semi-fast trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh via ‘the loop’ would call, as well as the yet to be completed Northumberland Park.

Route map of the Northumberland Coast Loop, the second potential route between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth and North Tyneside

Our petition for the route is making steady progress, and is steadily progressing towards 1000 signatures, if you’d like to sign it, please do so!

Why Blyth Bebside?

This station was selected as it is perhaps the most ideally suited of the N’land Line stations to act as a ‘hub’ for long distance services as it is in a very strategic location; it serves the largest town in Northumberland directly, but compared to the other station serving the town of Blyth at Newsham, Blyth Bebside is in an easier to reach location from other towns.

Bedlington was discounted for semi-fast services due to its very constained location for platforms; which are limited by the track layout, with Bedlington Junction at the NW end, and level crossing at the opposite SE end, and a further junction for sidings only just beyond that!

Google Maps image showing the level crossing and junction for Furnaceway Sidings in close proximity to Bedlington Station.

In contrast, Blyth Bebside is a much simpler site, with a fair distance between the platforms and the level crossing/bridge over the A189 a fair distance in each direction, potentially allowing relatively easy platform lengthening if required in future.

Blyth Bebside station very much ‘in the distance’ from Bebside Level Crossing

Active Travel (Walking, Cycling, etc)

Blyth Bebside station is nearby to the coastal Route 1 on the National Cycle Network, and is also at a convergence of many other footpaths and cycle routes connecting Bedlington (Bebside Furnace Road towards the Bank Top pub in Bedlington) and Cramlington (such as Hathery Lane towards the former Three Horseshoes pub/East Hartford), making it ideally placed for multiple towns to connect into.

Buses and Cars

Blyth Bebside station is adjacent to the crossroads of the A189 Spine Road and A193, which are both major bus routes into and out of Blyth, as well as easily accessible to motorists from a very wide area surrounding the station. This again makes Blyth Bebside ideally placed as a strategic interchange between rail and bus services, as well as those arriving by taxi, or own private car.

Rail

The station is also in a great position for rail connectivity; towns like Ashington that cannot be served directly by the proposed loop route will still have an easy interchange at Blyth Bebside as all trains running to Ashington pass via that route anyway, the same applying for extension of the line to Woodhorn, Newbiggin by the Sea, or Lynemouth.

Example Trip

Ashington to Edinburgh: a hypothetical trip from a home in Ashington to visit Edinburgh could be done in multiple ways, a quick taxi/lift/car trip down the A189 to Blyth Bebside, and join a northbound train there for the Scottish capital, or using the railway, just two stops down the Northumberland Line, over the bridge to change platforms and again board the northbound rail servive to Edinburgh.

In reverse, the same would apply, arriving back at Blyth Bebside, it would either be getting a taxi/lift/car back to Ashington, or jumping onto a Northumberland Line train to head home.

Blyth Bebside vs Central Station or Morpeth

InterCity rail services being introduced between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth hold a few key advantages over the present status quo of connecting onto long-distance services via Newcastle Central or Morpeth.

Newcastle Central is too far south; adding significantly to journey times

Travel times on the Northumberland Line from Blyth Bebside to Newcastle Central are usually 28-30mins, then entail a waiting time at Newcastle (to get off N’land Line train, change platforms and join next service is usually at least 5 minutes to allow sufficient time for change of train), then even the fastest services take approx 15mins to pass through Pegswood an overall total time of around 50 minutes (as borne out by Google Maps below, which involves a change of train at Manors), compared to a direct trip from Blyth Bebside to Pegswood via Hepscott, which takes around 15 minutes by rail.

Public Transport as of 20.10.25 between newly opened Blyth Bebside and Morpeth Stations

More detail of the rail trip between Blyth Bebside, Manors, and Morpeth

This means that from Blyth Bebside, the direct route would represent an approximately 30 minutes (half an hour) of time saved in each direction compared to travelling south into Newcastle to change train, then travel north again, for a day-out, that would mean an extra hour overall, either spent enjoying an activity North Northumberland or Scotland, or being home earlier at the end of day out.

Not only that, but a smaller station is easier to understand for less familiar rail users, and if travelling with luggage, small children etc (being ‘encumbered’), reducing the number of changes of train, and ideally travelling on a single seat as much as possible is helpful to promote rail use to those less confident with using passenger trains.

Morpeth is awkward to reach

Again from Blyth Bebside, Morpeth is an awkward station to reach; there is no proposal for a direct rail service to Morpeth from here (there is a proposal for a Newcastle to Bedlington via Morpeth route), meaning that to reach Morpeth by rail, would mean change of train at Bedlington, again adding to journey times, and is relatively inconvenient given such short distances.

A solution to this would be to extend services to Blyth Bebside/Newsham rather than terminating at Bedlington, but this may require additional infrastructure such as a turnback siding being constructed, and may not fit within the current gap in the timetable allowing a ‘Bedlington and back’ extension of the route as proposed.

Using buses, though direct is also a very slow option, with a combination of the X9 and 43 buses (again change of bus mid-journey), taking 36 minutes, only five minutes faster than cycling.

Bus connections between Blyth Bebside and Morpeth stations

As can be seen above even for buses running reasonably directly between Blyth Bebside and Morpeth stations, the journey times are poor, taking at least 36 minutes for the trip, and that involving a change of bus from the X9 onto the 43 at Heather Lea. The 2 service offers a direct link, but there no time saving, taking 36 minutes for the trip.

The 2: the ‘direct’ bus between Blyth Bebside and Morpeth

Morpeth is a fairly short drive, being around 15 minutes, but that adds to congestion problems in Blyth, Bedlington, Choppington and Morpeth itself, and with a highly constrained car park at Morpeth, which is also often quite full, and parking charges can also be significant, that acts to deter rail use, compared to driving the entire journey instead.

Direct trains to Edinburgh from Blyth Bebside could be an answer to these issues?

Given the challenges of ‘travelling south to go north’ to change at Newcastle (and also using up limited seating capacity to do so), or getting across to Morpeth to catch trains there, the logical solution might be to take the trains to the people; after all, Blyth IS the largest Northumberland town, so surely deserves at least some direct connectivity to other major cities, even if just a fraction of what its much smaller counterpart Morpeth gets.

Direct trains could also have the benefit of adding to seating capacity; an additional train running InterCity between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside, alongside the existing Northumberland Line trains would put more seats onto the route, allowing people to do Newcastle to Blyth Bebside, whilst those headed northwards would jump into the now empty seat, and wouldn’t be using seats towards Newcastle and towards Morpeth either, thereby releasing capacity on other trains.

Extra carriages on some Northumberland Line trains from October 2025, but N.C.L. option still open?

With the fourth station on the line at Blyth Bebside due to open tomorrow (19th October 2025), and already around 700,000 passengers having travelled on the Northumberland Line since it opened less than a year ago (15th December 2024), there have been many of the two carriage trains becoming overwhelmed by the volume of passengers using the services, with occasionally passengers being unable to board due to how full the trains are.

To help ease this problem (in many ways a good one, in that the line is being far more successful than was predicted, and proves the ‘build it, and they will come’ of major public transport investment), the operator of trains, Northern, is putting on extra carriages where possible at peak times to provide added capacity, but a shortage of diesel multiple units (DMU’s) like the Class 156 and 158 used on the route, as well as others across the UK nationally is an issue.

The statement in the article that ‘Northern have introduced extra carriages on some of its services and will continue to closely monitor capacity with a view to meeting demand wherever possible.‘ is an encouraging one, but does suggest that what might be possible could be limited in scope, due to the availability of old units like the Class 156 and 158 trains, which are stretched thinly across the UK.

Encouragingly, the article does also state that ‘Programme partners will continue to explore all options to provide more capacity for customers, while acknowledging the real practical difficulties because of the shortage of suitable vehicles nationally.‘ so perhaps our suggestion of using other trains, such as the TPE Nova 1 fleet, CrossCountry or other diesel/bi-mode units to run the Newcasyle to Edinburgh via Bedlington route, and thus augment the Northumberland Line services (run alongside the Northern trains) has happily not been ruled out, and the other major advantage of this would be offering direct services from this immensely popular reopened line serving south east Northumberland, into North Northumberland and Scotland.

Map of the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop, showing the possibility to return to the ECML near Pegswood via the existing freight line from Bedlington Junction to Morpeth North Junction

Our petition for this is steadily reaching 1000 signatures, and if you’d like to add yours, please do so here: https://www.change.org/p/start-a-newcastle-edinburgh-rail-service-via-blyth-bebside-and-northumberland-park/exp/cl_/cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB/10/679068674?recruiter=679068674&recruited_by_id=f8c66ca0-ee1b-11e6-b726-5dfd818fd527&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB%3A10

Extra carriages on some Northumberland Line trains from October 2025, but N.C.L. option still open?

Northumberland Line: 700,000 passengers passed!

In a Facebook post today (16.10.25) from Northumberland County Council, council leader Glen Sanderson stood at Blyth Bebside, the next station due to open on the Northumberland Line, which will mark four of the six stations new completed and opened to passengers, showcasing what the completed station will look like ahead of opening.

In the same post, he also announced that 700,000 passengers had been reached in 10 months since the opening of the line on 15th December 2024, 306 days ago to be more precise.

A simple average of the total passenger volume (700,000) shared by the number of operating days (306) means an average per day of 2,288 passengers per day (rounded up to nearest whole number) using the line daily.

At that rate, a MILLION passengers on the line should be achieved in late 2025/early 2026, phenomenally beyond even the most optimistic expectations of the most optimistic people backing the project, and showing clearly the ‘build it, and they will come‘ analogy has rung very true with regards the Northumberland Line.

Next steps?

With such a roaring success comes an issue; the often two carriage Class 158/156 units are often struggling to carry all the passengers desiring to use the line, and there aren’t any easy options to get more similar carriages to make trains up to four on every train.

Our route map for the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop

Our proposed solution is to redirect some current East Coast Main Line (ECML) services via Bedlington, possible along the existing route from Morpeth North Junction (w3w: ///insects.hamsters.issuer), curving off the mainline coming from Pegswood heading south, passing through Hepscott, then joining the Northumberland Line at Bedlington Junction.

Sending some trains, such as the Transpennine Express Nova 1 fleet (which is capable of running on either a diesel engine or from overhead wires, and can achieve 125mph when on the ECML) could be one solution: it would add valuable extra seats on the Northumberland Line to/from Newcastle if ran in addition to the Northern trains, but would also give direct northbound connections from towns like Blyth into North Northumberland (i.e. Blyth to Berwick Upon Tweed direct), or ideally into Edinburgh Waverley, linking the Scottish capital to Newcastle via south east Northumberland proper.

This would have the side benefit of developing diversionary route knowledge for train drivers; which potentially might have been needed during the issues with Plessey Viaduct in October 2023 and the ensuing repairs required had both lines been closed entirely.

Screenshot from the York Mix article on Plessey Viaduct

Fortunately, the damaged viaduct remained partially open until repairs were completed, but driver knowledge of the diversionary route via Bedlington would certainly be of benefit in added resilience for rail services, and one of the best ways to achieve, and to maintain route knowledge is regular running of trains over the route.

Our petition for a Newcastle to Edinburgh via Bedlington service is steadily growing, standing at just under 1000 signatures so far, if you’d like to sign it too, please do so here: https://c.org/J8DxHqpWdf

Thanks for reading, RH.

Newsham and other stations vs Arriva buses?

It has been good to see the BBC News coverage recently (14.10.25) about lack of direct bus services to the new station at Newsham on the Northumberland Line, after our blog post on 2nd October titled ‘New railway station at Newsham; but no buses to it!‘.

The original blog post, 2nd October 2025.

The company operating buses, Arriva (now owned by a Miami based investment fund called I Squared Capital, having been sold by Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway in 2024, who in turn had owned it since 2010.) has seemingly refused to serve the platform adjacent stop, stating that the buses already call a short distance away, and that adding extra time to journeys would be ‘without much benefit‘, according to the Arriva North East spokesperson.

To quote directly from the above sale annoucement however, ‘Mike Cooper, CEO of Arriva Group, said: “We want to see a future where people choose to leave their car at home, a future with less traffic congestion and cleaner air.‘ So surely serving Newsham station (and other railway stations) better is surely a clear way to achieve this goal?

Improved connections to and from the railway station, delivered through a fully integrated bus service, is likely to help with the choice of ‘leaving the car at home‘, which especially in a town as congested as Blyth, would make a huge difference almost immediately, and especially to the parking problems being experienced around the new station Newsham due to high demand for rail services, but the relatively poor inward or outward public transport connections mean that many view driving to the station as the only viable option.

Whilst the existing bus stops may, or may not be far away from the station depending on your own opinion, an ‘ideal’ situation surely is an ‘as close as possible‘ interchange between rail and bus services; so where feasible, a dedicated station bus stop on a turning circle or within a station car park is clearly the preferable option to be served compared to a ‘nearby street’.

For everyone, but especially those with mobility issues, travelling with items of luggage, small children etc, or even just in poor weather conditions such as rain, snow, or wind; a close interchange is obviously of huge benefit, and worth the minor detour (as shown below) of the bus service itself to serve the station directly. Even in perfect weather, an easily visble bus stop near the platform is more obvious than needing directions to a bus stop a few streets away.

Whilst Arriva can be forgiven to some extent for Newsham being a relatively ‘new’ station, it having been open for less a year (opened in March 2025), and thus sticking with its existing bus routes for a while; now that the station, and the Northumberland Line more broadly is proving so popular, with over 650,000 passengers, it is perhaps time to adapt to this major change and begin running there directly?

Arriva elsewhere in Northumberland

This is a wider and more long-running issue with Arriva at other stations such as in Cramlington or Morpeth where their buses have never, to my knowledge, served the station turning circles, but other bus operators have done this from time to time, showing that it CAN be done.

In North Northumberland, there is also a stong desire to see better connections from towns such as Amble and Alnwick to Alnmouth station, with a petition now standing at 826 signatures for a dedicated ‘Bus Meets Train’ service to augment other buses to and from the station.

With buses receiving subsidies from the North East Combined Authority for things like the £2.50 fare cap, hopefully a better integation of buses and trains might be achieved by making serving stations a condition of subsidy?

As the major operator of buses in Northumberland, it is clear that more could be done throughout the county by Arriva to ensure better bus and rail integration, which has multiple benefits for local residents, but also for the many tourists to our region, there is literally a zero downside to a better integrated public transport system.

Another recent article highlighting tourism issues identified by Mayor McGuinness is a good case in point; buses linking to rail services in a co-ordinated fashion would help make many attractions easier to visit, especially as a bus can act as a mobile billboard for them, such as the ‘Poison Garden’ branded bus, as seen in Alnwick Bus Station below.

Could there be ‘Blyth Battery’ or ‘Bamburgh Castle’ branded bus services too?

Public Transport: Integration is better than false competition.

This is an issue that stems more broadly from the privatisation and deregulation of buses back in the 1980’s, so that rather than co-ordinated and integrated system, public transport still takes a Victorian ‘competitive’ approach that the bus services are attempting to compete with trains, when really both would benefit from working as part of a single larger system.

Buses are advantageous in providing access to places a train cannot viably reach; central Blyth is unlikely to ever again see rail services due to the loss of the branchline into the centre and the development on the routes into the town since then have probably precluded it being rebuilt, but an integrated system of buses linking both Newsham and Blyth Bebside station into the town centre is a reasonable alternative.

Similarly, other stations such as Morpeth or Alnmouth, that act as hubs for a much wider area, and offer UK wide connections are relatively poorly connected by buses, which is an absurd situation in many ways.

Indeed, better integration of buses and rail would likely boost Arriva by additional ticket sales; more than compensating for the tiny additional distance and time required.

As an example, the fastest Blyth Bus Station to Haymarket service, the X10, takes 54mins for its trip end to end; but would three minutes extra, to run via the Newsham Station bus stop make that much difference?

X10 route from Blyth Bus Station to Newcastle Haymarket

Existing loop in the X10 route via Walsham Close, why can’t a second smaller loop be made via Newsham Station?

How far away are the alternative stops?

Using Google Maps, an approximate journey time can be ascertained for the walking distances to and from Newsham station to both the Blagdon Drive bus stops (for the X8 service to/from Blyth Town Centre), and the Park Farm Villas bus stops (for the X10 and X30 buses).

Whilst neither of the current stops could be described as ‘a million miles away’ from the station, they are still a fair walking distance away, and especially for a disabled person or someone unfamiliar with the area could present issues, for the fairly for a simple and very modest short re-routing of a bus service to obviate the whole issue entirely.

Blagdon Drive Bus Stop to Newsham Station

The bus stops on Blagdon Drive for the X8, which are located just to the east of the new roundabout to the east of Newsham station (map below orientated east up), are the closest stops to the new bus stop within the station car park, but would also mean the smallest detour of bus route to serve the station bus stop, as the route already crosses to/from the east side of the Northumberland Line.

Location of Blagdon Drive bus stop relative to Newsham Railway Station.

Approximate walking distance to Newsham Station from Blagdon Drive bus stop to the east of the station.

As can be seen above, the Blagdon Drive bus stop is a fairly modest 4 minute, 290m distant, and mostly flat walking route for passengers changing between the X8 bus and trains calling at Newsham station, but as can be seen below, a deviation of the bus route would represent an approximate two minutes of additional time compared to present situation of ignoring the stop.

The direct route between Laverock Hall Farm and Blyth Battery ignoring the station bus stop is an 8 min expected journey time for a car.

The same start and end points via Newsham Station would represent circa two minute diversion, and extra 400m of bus route.

With such a minor diversion of the bus route (c.2 mins) in exchange for a much improved connection between the X8 and Northumberland Line rail services, then hopefully Arriva will change their mind about this route being amended to serve the station, especially if requested as part of the subsidy arrangements that companies like Arriva receive for operating buses at reasonable cost.

Park Farm Villas to Newsham Station

The current bus routes of the X10 and X30 run near to the Northumberland Line, but instead of passing over the line near Newsham station, instead head north and in parallel along the B1523, passing near to the station.

As can be seen, again a circa 4 minute, 300m walk isn’t a huge distance, but for those with mobility problems, heavy luggage, small children, or even those simply being unfamiliar with the area, a bus stop well out of sight of the station is not a welcoming way to encourage use.

Example route avoiding Newsham Station, from Laverock Hall Farm to Co-op Food, New Delaval.

Route between Laverock Hall Farm and the New Delaval Co-op, but running via Newsham Station bus stop, a c.3min diversion and extra 600m on the bus route.

As can be seen from the maps above, diversion of the X8, X10, and X30 buses to serve Newsham Station is not an outrageous request, it would represent a matter of under 4 minutes to run the bus via Newsham Stations own bus stop, even for those having to cross the new bridge and go back again, yet would provide massively better bus & rail integration.

Hopefully Arriva may test out a diversion of the bus routes to at least assess the impact of the change as a compromise?

The Northumberland Line passes 650,000 journeys!

In this article from the Northumberland Gazette, which discusses the opening of the fourth station on the line at Blyth Bebside next Sunday, the 19th October 2025, gave great news for passenger figures on the line.

So far, two stations, one at Ashington, and the other at Seaton Delaval, opened with the line itself on 15th December 2024, and the third station at Newsham, opened shortly afterwards on the 17th March 2025.

Tickets to travel to and from Blyth Bebside are now available to purchase, and to quote the article itself:

‘It comes after the Northumberland Line reopened to passengers – for the first time in 60 years – in December 2024. Since then, they have used it to make more than 650,000 journeys.

Services, which are run by Northern, have proved to be very popular during weekends and school holidays. But the train operator has also seen a growing number of commuters and students using weekday services in recent months.‘

With the first anniversary of the line fast approaching on 15th December 2025, perhaps it is not outlandish to suggest that the volume of journeys will be fast approaching a three quarters of a million by then, with a simple average of 650,000 passengers in 302 days (15.12.24 to 12.10.25) meaning that 2,152 passengers/day are using the line on average, and if the same rate is maintained in the coming 60 days, it would add approximately 135,000 additional journeys onto the 650,000 already made.

A huge success, but one that could be boosted even further if the Northumberland Coast Loop is added as an option for direct connections to North Northumberland and Scotland?

The petition is inching ever closer to 1000 signatures, could your signature be next?

Chathill station planning application for station improvements submitted

A recent Northumberland Gazette article has detailed how Sella Controls is intending to install two post mounted displays, one on each platform, to upgrade the passenger information systems at the station.

Please click the link above for further information.

McGuinness, Lavery, and Foody push for earlier opening of last Northumberland Line Stations, and the N.C.L. fix for full Northern trains.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, alongside MP’s Ian Lavery, and Emma Foody, have published on Facebook an open letter yesterday to Ellie Burrows, Regional Managing Director, Eastern of Network Rail to request the earliest possible opening of the last two stations under construction on the Northumberland Line scheme, those at Bedlington, and Northumberland Park, with Blyth Bebside due to open in just over a week on Sunday 19th October 2025.

Whilst it is important to have these stations up and running as soon as possible, it must also be done safely and not unduly rushed despite the delays of potentially a year or more since the opening of the line on 15th December 2024, which itself was a slipped deadline from the original ‘Summer 2023’ opening of the line.

Crowding and More Carriages Comments, and TPE via the Northumberland Coast Loop route a solution?

Of note on the Facebook post was the comments calling for more carriages to be provided on the Northumberland Line due to issues of crowding being experienced due to the high popularity of the route, some examples are shown below (anonymised)

The problem is that the Northern units (Class 156/158) that are used on the Northumberland Line are around 30 year old British Rail trains, and are thinly stretched across all of the Northern routes; pulling a unit from one route would make another one short of trains – very much ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.

There simply isn’t anywhere to get new units of the same design, and whilst new trains for Northern are in the pipeline, it’ll be quite some time until they are seen on the network.

Transpennine Express (TPE) via Blyth?

What I would propose is a re-routing of some Transpennine Express (TPE) units (the Nova 1 bi-mode fleet), which are short, 5-car trains which currently run Newcastle to Edinburgh via Morpeth and Cramlington to alternatively run via Blyth and Northumberland Park. These could add around 320+ seats, with some in First Class to the route.

As a bi-mode train, they can run on both the overhead electric wires, but also have an onboard diesel engines, which would allow them to come off the East Coast Main Line at Morpeth North Junction (https://w3w.co/insects.hamsters.issuer), then travel through Hepscott, over Choppington Level Crossing, and join the Northumberland Line at Bedlington, and could augment the Northern operated Northumberland Line trains by providing more trains, and thus more seats to/from Newcastle, but also to give a connection northwards to places like Alnmouth, Berwick Upon Tweed, and Edinburgh direct.

Alternative operators could also serve the route if TPE is unable to; CrossCountry for example uses diesel ‘Voyagers’ (Class 220) in four car sets, which could run via Blyth rather than via Morpeth and Cramlington.

A further example could be Grand Central trains extending their current London – Sunderland ‘North Eastern’ route through Newcastle and to Edinburgh via Blyth, again providing more seats, but also offering a new direct link between the Scotland and the Northumberland Coast onto the Durham Coast and Teesside.

Indeed a combination of different operators would be possible, but any additional trains running via the Northumberland Coast Loop and serving the stations would ease the crowding experienced on some services, whilst also offering new northward connections.

Petition nearing 1000 signatures: https://chng.it/J8DxHqpWdf

As of today, the petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop currently stands at near 1000 signatures, suggesting a strong demand for the route exists, so hopefully Mayot Kim McGuinness, and MP’s Ian Lavery and Emma Foody might put forward this route to help ease the crowding on the Northumberland Line, and give these new stations even better connections to the rest of the UK?

John Lamont MP, David Smith MP, LNER, Network Rail and local councillors meet at Berwick-upon-Tweed Station: October 2025

A recent Facebook post from John Lamont MP, who represents Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk just over the border in Scotland gave an update on a recent meeting held at Berwick Upon Tweed railway station.

While Berwick station is within Northumberland, and therefore in the Consituency of David Smith MP, who represents North Northumberland, it is great to see the cross-party collaboration between both elected representatives to work for the people on both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border, who pass between both countries regularly.

Like many other campaigners and organised groups, the land between Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle Central is not just there to rattle through non-stop and admire the splendid views from the line; it should also be there to serve the local communities who live along it’s length, or nearby to it (including myself as an Alnwick resident), but also to serve the growing market for tourism in the areas served by the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Edinburgh and Newcastle.

As John succinctly puts it, we need to push for investment in the infrastructure to deliver BOTH a fast InterCity service between Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, and London, alongside a strong set of local services calling at the intermediate stations like Berwick, but also Chathill, Belford, and hopefully, a route via Blyth, Northumberland to further link Northumberland together as one county.

Lets hope that LNER, and the other train operators, alongside Network Rail can help deliver BOTH a fast service between the cities, alongside the slower ones to serve smaller, but still vitally important places in-between.

If you’d like to join the 958 people who are supporting an Edinburgh – Blyth Bebside – Northumberland Park – Newcastle rail route becoming established, please do so here: https://chng.it/zThXj8HBpY

Thanks, RH.

New railway station at Newsham; but no buses to it!

Following a recent announcement on the expansion of the facilities at Newsham station on the Northumberland Line, which largely comprising of additional car parking being completed, has raised comments about the lack of buses serving the new station.

Announcement by Northumberland County Council (NCC) of the opening of the west car park at Newsham station, the third station opened on the Northumberland Line in March 2025.

The huge success of the Northumberland Line, which has had over 500,000 passengers announced some time ago (meaning the current passenger total is likely now far higher given how busy many trains continue to be) has meant that this additional west car park being opened will ease some of the strain on the east car park, as well as the streets of local residents to the station.

High cost of the ‘free’ car parks; £6k+ per space!

Such has been the demand for the new rail services, social media comments have suggested that local streets are acting as an overflow car parking facility for station users, which obviously causes tensions, but car parking spaces are surprisingly expensive to provide, especially when they are often desired to be free at point of use.

As an example of the costs of providing such car parking, the 196 space tarmac car park proposed at Howling Lane in Alnwick, on a former school site that is currently a gravel car park was costed at £960,000 back in 2021, which by simple maths equates to almost £4,900 per space to construct, let alone the ongoing costs of lighting, insurance, maintenance etc, and with the high inflation rates of recent years, that price is likely to be over £6,120 per space when adjusted to August 2025 prices using the Bank of England Inflation Calculator.

Therefore, to build an additional 200 space car park at Newsham; a guide price of at least £1.25m would be likely (£6,120 x 200).

Given the cost overruns on the Northumberland Line, and the recent commitment of additional funds to complete the stations on the line, more being requested to provide more parking is going to be challenging to find.

‘Bus Meets Train’ a fix for Blyth?

A clear solution to this problem would be to make access to Newsham (and other stations) without using a car at all easier, and one option would be to use the already existing bus stop in the east car park, conveniently almost adjacent to the southbound platform.

‘Bus Meets Train’ signage at Alnwick Bus Station, a town a fraction of the size of Blyth, and now without its own railway station.

Photo of the new, but little used bus stop at Newsham station, taken on 20th March 2025

Whilst the bus stop has been used for rail replacement buses, to my knowledge few, if indeed any service buses have called at this bus stop, with comments on the original post by NCC below suggesting strongly that no bus companies, including Arriva, the main bus operator in the area, has been willing to serve this new bus stop.

A good example of a bus that could serve this bus stop is the Arriva X8 service, that passes over the Northumberland Line itself, and then calls at the nearby Blagdon Drive bus stop, which would need to only make a tiny diversion through the car park to serve the station. Running from early morning to late evening, an interchange with the X8 would be a potentially ideal way to improve bus/rail integration at Newsham station.

This case is perhaps a good example of where the deregulation of buses is a clear policy failure; and that organisations such as NCC should have more power to compel companies like Arriva, who are in receipt of subsidies to provide bus services, to actually serve a multi-million pound new railway station that is on their bus route?

The deregulation of buses is based on flawed principle that bus services like the X8 should be ‘competing’ with the Northumberland Line services as a route into Newcastle from Blyth, where in reality, they should collaborate to their respective strengths.

The strength of the train is a fast, comfortable way to transport large volumes of people, whilst that of the bus is to carry smaller volumes nearer to origin and destination points; few streets in Blyth would be able to have a railway station at the end, but many could and indeed do have a nearby bus stop, with the inherent flexibility to run many varied bus routes to serve different areas of town.

Another comment on the Facebook post suggested running a dedicated shuttle bus between the Town Centre to Newsham, which could be an alternative option, or more ideally a mix of both could be employed?

The Northumberland Line is likely to continue being a massive success with or without bus connectivity, but ‘bus meets train’ is an obvious quick, inexpensive solution to ease traffic problems more broadly; people driving in/out of Blyth to head to Newsham station, or Blyth Bebside when it opens still contributing to congestion within the town just as much as if they drove all the way to their workplace or leisure activity. A simple swap away from their own car, to a short bus trip to the nearby station as an integrated bus+train trip would be a far better solution, especially if ticketing can be changed to a single through ticket too…

Enhancing the Northumberland Line: Beyond Newcastle, and the Edinburgh Extension?

In addition, the stations themselves are well positioned to offer an even more diverse range of rail journeys, Newcastle is the current terminus, but come December, the rumour is that the Gateshead MetroCentre will be a single trip away by rail on a Sunday.

Hopefully, if successful, the Northumberland Line will see this MetroCentre link become a permanent feature on more days of the week, and maybe more routes south beyond Newcastle might prove possible, with the Durham Coast route to Sunderland and Teesside a potential contender too.

Northumberland Coast Loop

The other option is to also look north, and use the route linking Bedlington to Pegswood to give direct access to North Northumberland and Scotland, only built in the 1980’s, and largely for coal to reach the now long-gone Blyth Power Station, this link could see a new rail service to put Blyth on a through route between Edinburgh and Newcastle, making the Northumberland Line into the Northumberland Coast Loop?

Public footpath over the Morpeth North Curve, part of the direct link from Blyth to Edinburgh. (Have a look for yourself by visiting it at what3words location: ///plea.refuses.shepherdess)

Route map showing the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop allowing passage from Newsham and Blyth Bebside to Pegswood, Alnmouth, Berwick Upon Tweed, and Edinburgh.

The route of ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’, which did the Newcastle – Blyth – Edinburgh route back on 8th March 2025, and hopefully could be a regular route in future!

The petition for the above proposed route is performing well, and is steadily climbing to 1000 signatures, but if you haven’t already, please feel welcome to add yours here: https://chng.it/zThXj8HBpY.

Thanks for reading! RH.