In Episode 48 of the excellent Green Signals podcast, presenter Richard Bowker takes a trip with GBRf CEO John Smith on the North Blyth to Fort William alumina train (the ‘Alcan tanks’), starting at c.17:00 minutes into the above video, it showcases the route from Springburn, near Glasgow to Spean Bridge, near Fort William in Scotland, which is excellent to see and well worth a watch.
It would be good, if Green Signals is to have another ‘jolly’ on camera, to perhaps see the Northumberland end of this interesting freight route that would have a good overlap with the progressive opening of the Northumberland Line, and could showcase a route that this campaign is aiming to see become a reality.
Can Nigel, Richard, and Steff make it happen? Hopefully so!
News has just broken from The Chronicle that the Northumberland Line is expected to reach 250,000 trips by Easter 2025; mere months after opening in December 2025, and with only half of the stations opened.
This is excellent news for the route, which has seen reopening campaigns since the mid 1970’s, with a meeting between the then MP for Morpeth, George Grant meeting with Eric Heffer MP, the then Minister for Industry.
Looking forward, it is a fairly safe assumption that the Northumberland Line may see 500,000 passengers by the first anniversary of the line reopening to passengers in December 2025.
It also lends a strong case to expansion of the route; with several possibilities available, but two within easy reach could use existing track and stations to provide a expanded service.
Newcastle – Morpeth – Bedlington
This route has long been argued for, and was at one time seen as a way to initiate the return of services to Bedlington as a first phase of reopening.
It is now understood to be in the works for starting once Bedlington station is completed, allowing units currently idle at Coopies Lane sidings to run to Bedlington and back, giving an east-west connection.
Hopefully with Bedlington station due to complete by December 2025, this service may be introduced alongside?
This campaign was established to combat the potential oversight of this route by other campaigns.
It is very much an ‘train ready route’, as it was used earlier this month for the SRPS ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ railtour to offer a through north-south link between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Bedlington.
If the Newcastle, Morpeth, and Bedlington route is ready to go, this one should also be a quick one to implement too.
This route would offer a few key advantages;
Additional trains alongside the Northumberland Line service would offer additional seating capacity, which is a known problem on the line given its popularity and would offer a potentially quick fix to this.
Would avoid passengers bound for North Northumberland/Scotland needing to travel south to Newcastle to make onward connections, and taking up capacity in that direction, and instead would board direct trains headed northwards, or on return, would vacate seats at station such as Blyth Bebside to be occupied by other passengers heading into Newcastle or beyond.
Builds on the proposed use of Morpeth – Bedlington services to support the proposed new station at Choppington, and would only require the short chord from Hepscott Junction to Morpeth North Junction to enable this route, with Hepscott Junction to Bedlington Junction being shared with other passenger services.
There has been a recent, and largely very welcome announcement in recent days about a £208m transport investment, part of a larger overall ‘£8.3bn transport vision’ which includes welcome schemes such as reopening of the Leamside Line, integrated ticketing, and wider public transport and active travel improvements.
That being said, dualling the A1 has once again reappeared, and given its £500m+ price tag would still constitute a sizeable chunk of the overall vision.
This latter scheme is undesirable for a number of reasons covered a lot of times before, but will be briefly reiterated here for clarity:
Dualling the A1 is poor value for money and bad for the environment, with little impact on safety.
Regardless of price, dualling the A1 has a benefit:cost ratio of just 0.8, meaning for every £1 in, only 80p of economic benefit would be returned. With a £500m+ price tag, this means an economic loss of £100m or more, which even in the best economic situation makes little sense, but with the huge pressure on the public purse, it makes zero sense now.
The case against dualling doesn’t end at just being poor value for money, it also has adverse impacts on a large amount of ancient woodland, especially in and around the Coquet valley, as well as being responsible for 2,487,000 tonnes of CO² over its lifetime (build plus traffic, which is still significantly reliant upon petrol & diesel vehicles), a do-nothing scenario would result in lower emissions, especially if coupled with modal shift away from driving (which this campaign advocates for), and a do-nothing would also protect habitats such as ancient woodland, alongside allowing the £500m+ of financing to be allocated elsewhere.
Dualling is not a major safety fix
While it may be true that a dual carriageway may have some safety gains, it is far from making a road totally ‘safe’, as sadly borne out by fatal and serious accidents on already dualled sections of the A1 itself, as well as on similar roads elsewhere in the UK.
Part of the analysis by Space4Gosforth highlights this problem well, with a decade of accident data shown below.
Spending £500m+ on one thirteen-mile stretch of road could surely be better allocated to reducing road casualties across Northumberland as a whole. Accident rates on dual and single carriageway sections were so similar as to not represent any real difference; so in safety terms, the argument for dualling is a false one.
In the time period between 2014 and 2024, 141 lives were lost on Northumberland roads, and 1,550 serious injuries; inducing more road traffic will only make these figures worse, and the number is far too high a toll already.
Invest in the ECML & N.C.L. instead?
People still need to travel, and if not by road, they need a viable alternative to do so.
For the A1 in particular, especially the stretch between Morpeth and Berwick, the East Coast Main Line (ECML) runs in near parallel throughout, and represents where an alternative investment might be better placed.
As stated on the Railfuture North East webpage, a study into a local (all stations rail service) between Newcastle and Berwick was carried out as recently as 2019, and found to be economically viable (i.e. benefit:cost ratio greater than 1:1), this would represent an excellent scheme for Kim McGuinness to implement rather than the deeply flawed dualling of the A1.
Consider the Northumberland Coast Loop too.
Alongside improving the ECML rail service as above, the Northumberland Coast Loop could also be considered. This route would offer a new rail route between Newcastle and Berwick or Edinburgh going via Bedlington, and Pegswood.
Route map of the Northumberland Coast LoopRail map of ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’, operated by the SRPS that took the N.C.L. route on 8th March 2025.
As can be seen from the above maps, a rail service via the Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, then cutting across west to Pegswood is already possible on existing track, and was traversed by the SRPS operated ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ on the 8th March 2025.
The Northumberland Line, on the day of opening Newsham station, was revealed to have carried over 135,000 passengers, despite being open for less than 100 days and with only two stations open between 15th December 2024 and Monday 17th March 2025 (opening day for Newsham station).
Running through trains from Newcastle to Edinburgh via Bedlington (or vice versa), would give this area a new northbound service that would very much compliment the existing and already popular Northumberland Line service between Ashington and Newcastle.
With an overall cost of £298.5m, the Northumberland Line, 18 miles in length gives a very approximate cost per mile of £16.6m per mile.
For the Bedlington to Pegswood link, about 6 miles between stations, a similar cost per mile would mean such a link would be in the ballpark of £99.6m, but that would likely include station costs of the proposed Choppington station as the Northumberland Line figure is counted as an ‘all in’ scheme and not trackwork separate to stations, and it may even be possible to build a station on the Morpeth North Curve where this line joins the ECML to allow Morpeth to be served by trains on this route.
Taking this near £100m figure as a baseline, it can be seen that this is a mere fraction of A1 dualling costs, and if £500m+ is available for the corridor, would mean £400m+ would also be available for the ECML between Morpeth and Berwick?
Similarly, a popular proposal that would complement the wider bettering of public transport is for a dedicated ‘Bus Meets Train shuttle between Alnwick, Alnmouth Station, Warkworth, and Amble, with a petition for this again performing very strongly to date, despite only recently being launched. Again this bus service would cost a mere fraction of that proposed to be spent on dualling the A1 in Northumberland, but would give potentially greater economic and certain environmental benefits to the popular tourist towns of Alnwick, Warkworth, and Amble.
We would implore Kim McGuinness, as North East Mayor to reconsider dualling the A1, and instead invest the funds into the ECML and N.C.L. rail routes.
To borrow the phrase often used on the ‘We have ways of making you talk’ a WW2 podcast by comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland, let us ‘walk the ground’ of Northumberland Coast Loop for the short section between Pegswood and Bedlington that, so far, is not used regularly for passenger trains.
This route does require walking on uneven ground such as field edges and over some gentle gradients, so might not be suitable for all, please make a judgement on your own capabilities before undertaking this walk. Sturdy boots are a recommendation.
SAFETY MESSAGE
STAY OFF THE RAILWAY, THIS WALKING ROUTE IS USING BRIDGES/LEVEL CROSSINGS TO EXPLAIN THE ROUTE AND WHERE IT CAN BE VIEWED FROM SAFELY. NEVER WALK ON RAILWAYS.
Morpeth Railway Station to Morpeth North Junction
To reach Morpeth North Junction, starting from Morpeth Railway Station is a very simple short walk almost parallel to the East Coast Main Line. The end destination is ‘Temples Bridge’ that carries a small farm track over the East Coast Main Line (ECML), from which is it is possible to view Morpeth North Junction.
If arriving by car, I would recommend parking in the station car parks, but if you do choose to park elsewhere, please do so considerately.
What3Words address of Morpeth North Junction
To reach it from Morpeth Station, exit the station onto Coopie’s Lane and turn left, heading approximately north east, parallel to the east coast mainline. This will take you over the level crossing at Coopies Lane (the line here heading towards Bedlington from Morpeth station). The railway junction at Morpeth station is simply called ‘Morpeth Junction’, but we are headed north to ‘Morpeth North Junction’, around a 23min walk away. Please note it is not possible to drive to this bridge over the ECML. While you may be able to park closer, please observe that access needs to be maintained to businesses, farms, and residences and so please park considerately if doing so.
Coopies Lane Level Crossing
Continue along Coopie’s Lane past the footpbridge over the ECML and the premises of Gott Technical Services, where you’ll need to cross the road as the footpath on the left hand side ends where it heads onto the footbridge, but continue to walk in parallel to the ECML.
Gott Technical Services and Morpeth railway footbridge
Next, you’ll approach a road junction, where Coopie’s Lane continues straight ahead, with Coopie’s Way diverging to the right, stay straight ahead and remain on Coopie’s Lane and parallel to the ECML.
Keep walking along Coopie’s Lane, and you’ll reach Morpeth North level crossing over the ECML on your left, here you need to bear to your right (headed towards the red car in the image below), remaining on Coopie’s Lane.
Remain on the south side of the ECML and on Coopie’s LaneContinue to follow the road, and whilst quiet, this road had no footpath along it so please be cautious for traffic.
Next up is Storage24 on the left, Coopie’s Lane continues to the right of this site and begins its first climb as it heads over the Morpeth North Curve.
Storage24 and approaching Morpeth North Curve
Morpeth North Curve
Here we finally encounter the Morpeth North Curve, built as recently as 1980 (still very new in railway terms), which gives the direct northbound link from Bedlington onto the ECML. Today, this is mostly used by the North Blyth to Fort William ‘Alcan’ service a handful of times per week, but once was a busy route for coal traffic, as well as seeing a number of diversions around Morpeth due to rail accidents there.
Bridge over the Morpeth North CurveExample of a diversion in 1994 using the Morpeth North Curve following a rail accident. Photo by James Wilson
Electric Future?
The above image showing a 91029 being dragged by 47773 shows the value in electrification of this line would have, as with an increasingly electric railway, overhead wires would allow electric trains to be driven over the route, rather than dragged along it. Bi-modes could do the job in the short term, but wiring, at 25kV AC is the long term future for most railways and the N.C.L. route could almost certainly justify electrification.
Towards Temples Bridge
Continue walking along Coopie’s Lane until reaching a crossroads of sorts where a few houses are dotted around. If you do take a vehicle along the route, this is about as far as you can reach by car.
The route you now need take is on your left, entering the field and following the footpath close to the hedgerow, taking you on the path to the west of the houses (the road is private shortly beyond this crossroads, and where Google maps’ Streetview ends).
The two bridges over the railway, the first near Storage24 (bottom left), and Temples Bridge (top centre).
Simply follow the footpath almost due north , until you reach Temples Bridge, from there, you can clearly see Morpeth North Junction where the line to Bedlington from Pegswood and the north diverges from the ECML heading eastwards, ultimately joining the Northumberland Line at Bedlington Junction.
To return to Morpeth Station, simply retrace your steps back.
If you do take this quite nice short walk, please let us know via our social media and maybe share your photos/videos too!
It is great to see that the first 100 days of the Northumberland Line (Sunday 15th December 2024 to Monday 24th March 2025), the recently reopened route is an undoubted success.
On the flip side of this, some trains are proving so popular that at peak times there are not enough trains to satisfy demand; resulting in passengers being turned away at some stations. Which is not what anyone wants to see.
Shortage of Northern Units
Reasons for this crowdingis due to some the services being formed of 2-car trains, not as 4-car ones that stations are able to fit, meaning that the number of seats/standing places is limited.
This is apparently due to a shortage of rolling stock (multiple units) at Northern, with apparently no easy answers for how Northern might run four car trains between Ashington and Newcastle, without reducing services elsewhere.
This needs a quick solution, as Newsham station, the third of the six to open just a week ago, has proven highly popular and will add to the crowding of services at peak times, let alone once Bedlington, Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park become completed.
Solution: Use Other Operators?
One solution, particularly at a weekend when fewer scheduled services are running might be to employ other diesel or bi-mode fleets on a Newcastle – Bedlington – Pegswood – Edinburgh route (and vice versa).
Suggested stops at Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park on a new Newcastle – Edinburgh service, but Newsham/Seaton Delaval could do for now?
An example suggested some time ago on this blog was to use Transpennine Express* Class 80x bi-modes (diesel & electric) over this route; it would still offer a good overall Newcastle to Edinburgh journey time (a bit slower than via Cramlington, but still good enough, and could be compensated by a reduced fare) whilst boosting capacity on the Northumberland Line and giving a northbound connection to boot.
*other operators such as CrossCountry/LNER etc could also be considered.
Charter trains could be a further option to provide additional capacity in the short-term too.
In short, it gives the following advantages;
Quick implementation as the route and rolling stock already exists.
Alleviates the crowding issues seen on the newly opened Northumberland Line.
Gives SE Northumberland the opportunity for northbound connections into North Northumberland and Scotland.
Gives more network resilience as train drivers and crew would be familiar with the ‘B&T diversionary route’, especially given the issues with Plessey Viaduct in 2023 which highlighted the routes potential for diversionary use, as has been done in past decades.
I would like to see this option considered by Northumberland County Council, Northern etc as a way to tackle the problems of crowding on the Northumberland Line.
If it is possible, please just do it. If not, please explain why it can’t be done.
Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh Rail Service Campaign
As of 21.3.25, the petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop route to Edinburgh from Newcastle (Newcastle – Bedlington – Pegswood – Berwick – Edinburgh) is performing well with 237 verified signatures
Massive thanks to those who have financially supported the rail petition!
Massive thanks to all contributors to the rail petition, with every donation, large or small going directly to change.org to help promote the petition for a rail service from Newcastle to Edinburgh via Bedlington; this route being used as recently as the 8th March 2025 with ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ railtour passing over it.
Let’s hope that other local rail campaigners will get behind this proposal, as they are already aware of it.
Complementing the above rail service proposal, is one for a dedicated bus service to improve connection between the Northumberland towns of Alnwick, Amble and Warkworth to Alnmouth railway station.
It was launched in response to recent comments made on the Alnwick Matters Facebook Group that buses to and from Alnmouth Station were not adequate and needed improvement, and is borne out by the strong support for the petition.
The proposal centres around providing a half-hourly bus service from the railway station to both of these towns, which is presently poorly served by other bus services, which run on an inconvenient schedule, and have a reputation for unreliability, being either late or not running at all.
This would support a better connection to all rail services, not just those proposed for the Northumberland Coast Loop.
A dedicated bus could overcome the unreliability of existing bus services, as well as making a much improved ‘bus meets train’ service connecting this popular area of Northumberland with local and national rail services.
Yet again, I would like to thank all the supporters of this campaign, who have given an amazing £44 via Change.org to help promote the petition.
In total, this represents a fantastic £60 of support via change.org to help promote these petitions, and a total of 540 signatures across both petitions.
Thank you to everyone who has made a contribution of any size, even those simply sharing these petitions with friends and family is of huge benefit at zero cost, and please help keep up the momentum!
With the recently published success of the Northumberland Line, having over 135,000 passengers quoted on the opening day of Newsham station, 92 days since opening on the 15th December shows how popular the new route between Ashington and Newcastle has already proven to be with just HALF of the new stations now open.
A recent BBC article also shows that journeys starting at these new stations on the Northumberland Line are not just local ones, to and from Newcastle. An extract below from this article states that Mr Watson (20) was using the newly opened station to travel to York.
From a conversation with a work colleague, they used the station at Seaton Delaval to reach Edinburgh via Newcastle, but there would be potential to undertake this route directly, as was shown just 10 days ago by a railtour operated by the SRPS called ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’
Direct Link to Edinburgh by Rail
Souvenir Brochure from the SRPS for the railtourSection of the route map showing the alternative route between Newcastle and Edinburgh passing through most (5/6) of the Northumberland Line stations.
As can be seen, on the late evening of the 8th March 2025, ‘The Rambler’ left Newcastle bound for Edinburgh, taking the lesser travelled route via the Northumberland Coast. With the ongoing success of the Northumberland Line, and the fantastic progress of the petition suggesting good levels of support; surely this route should feature as a logical ‘next step’ for expansion of the Northumberland Line?
Route map showing the potential station calls between Newcastle Upon Tyne and Berwick Upon Tweed by a regular rail service over the Northumberland Coast Loop
Just a simple train service over a slightly different route.
It wouldn’t need any additional stations, although it would assist the long-held case for Choppington station to be reopened, and the track is already in place to enable it (unlike the announcement for reopening Newbiggin Station, a route that lost its track decades ago).
As a local lad, I know that North Northumberland destinations like Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden & Lilidorei, Barter Books, Bamburgh Castle, Seahouses and many more are popular ‘day out’ venues, whilst further afield cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Scotland more generally are ideal long day out, short break and holiday destinations from this area.
Using this route regularly would have additional benefit as a diversionary route should an incident like what happened at Plessey Viaduct in October 2023 reoccur again in future too. Drivers would be able to take the bi-mode units (electric & diesel engine/battery pack) already used on Newcastle – Edinburgh services via this alternative route.
Doing the route regularly allows the vital route knowledge to be developed and retained, and rather than running occasional empty trains, why not fill them with passengers?
It is a slightly slower route between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth, but it serves larger population centres (Blyth is the largest town in Northumberland), and would bring even more benefit to the £298.5m investment into the route.
It is perhaps one of the most obvious ways to make more out of the existing network by running trains on new routes to make rail a faster and more convenient option from new stations such as this?
If you agree, please sign the petition (link at top of the page), and thanks for reading.
Please feel free to share this post to reach more people too!
With the opening of Newsham, another update on passenger figures has been released, with over 135,000 passengers recorded since the opening of the route on the 15th December 2024.
1,467 passengers per day on average
Taking the 135,000 passengers since opening figure, and by simple division of the 92 days since opening (excluding today the 17th March 2025), gives an approximate average of 1,467 passengers per day using the route.
This is particularly impressive given that the line opened with only two stations in December 2024, which excluded the largest town in Northumberland of Blyth, which once complete will be served by two stations, Newsham that opened today, and Blyth Bebside to the north of it.
Prediction: Half a million passengers by December 2025, maybe even one million?
Assuming that the current rate of 1467 passengers is maintained throughout 2025 until the first anniversary of the line opening on 15th December 2025, that would be well over half a million passengers (535,455) if the current rate of 1467 is extended over a year; but it is likely that this average will rise as more and more stations are added to the line during the course of the year.
The Northumberland Line may potentially exceed 750,000 or even one million passengers by December 2025 (only doubling average figure, which is reasonable given only ⅓ of the stations were open between December 2024 and today and carried 1467 passenger/day on average).
It’ll be interesting to see the ‘100 days’ figures if NCC can supply them on 25th March 2025!
The Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday 16th March 2025 marked the end of the ‘Newcastle United Trophy Drought’, with the first domestic football victory in 70 years for the club, with the last being in 1955. One of the stars of the match being the Blyth lad Daniel Burn, affectionately known as ‘Big Dan Burn’, and now having an assured place in Newcastle United history.
Today, the 17th March 2025, marks the ending of the ‘rail service drought’ suffered by Blyth since late 1964 with the reopening of Newsham Station on the Northumberland Line, a little over 60 year absence now ended.
With 158851 ‘The Palindrome’ being the first unit to serve Newsham station this morning, perhaps it might be fitting to name it in honour of Big Dan & the return of trains to Blyth; his hometown and the largest in Northumberland, newly reconnected to the rail network? Perhaps even being given an NUFC livery could be a possibility?
Spotted on a local rail group, maybe an NUFC livery for ‘Palindrome/Big Dan Burn’ 158851 too?
On the back of this, other fitting namings of units could be put forward too, but given the iconic win for Newcastle United, and strong local connection, a named Northern unit could be a fitting tribute to the events of recent days?
Blyth on the football map and the rail map, but bigger could beckon?
Dan Burn has certainly done Newcastle United and all the supporters proud in the Carabao Cup win at Wembley, but hopefully this is just one small step in his football career to come!
Similarly for Blyth, I would argue that a local rail service to/from Newcastle is just a starting point, with possibilities to extend beyond Newcastle at the south end, but also beyond Bedlington to Pegswood and into North Northumberland too, with clear support for Newcastle United flying from iconic places like Alnwick Castle captured online too…
A direct rail link from Newsham and Blyth Bebside to Alnmouth (for Alnwick) is already possible using the existing rail network, and if you’d like to support our campaign to see trains run over this route, please sign the petition here.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 