The N.C.L. put forward in the NECA Transport Plan Consultation

Today, I have put forward the Northumberland Coast Loop into the North East Combined Authority’s Transport Plan Consultation. 

With the Northumberland Line due to open in 10 days time (Sunday the 15th December 2024), and all stations so far being due to complete during 2025, on of the obvious things now is the ‘What’s next?‘ question.

The Hepscott Line

The Hepscott Line, that links Bedlington to Morpeth and to Pegswood is perhaps the obvious contender, it is a freight only route at present, but it will soon connect two passenger routes, with existing campaigns looking to extend the Newcastle to Morpeth Northern service at least as far as Bedlington.

The Northumberland Coast Loop proposal would use the other route at the western end of the Hepscott Line to provide a link between Bedlington and Pegswood, which would allow a direct route from Newcastle, up the Northumberland Line to Bedlington, then cutting back west to rejoin the East Coast Main Line (ECML) near Pegswood, and then head to North Northumberland and Scotland. 

Newcastle to Berwick via Bedlington: The Northumberland Coast Loop

There is already an existing and proven rail market between Newcastle and towns such as Berwick, Alnmouth and more, with our recent analysis showing nearly one million rail users in North Northumberland, a significant proportion can be reasonably safely assumed to be travelling to/from Newcastle Central, with a smaller proportion of ‘within Northumberland’ trips, mostly direct from Morpeth (Cramlington having few services heading north of Morpeth).

The Northumberland Line is almost certainly going to attract new ridership from the larger towns of south east Northumberland, an area deprived of rail services since 1964, with two new stations at Ashington, and Seaton Delaval due to open this month, followed by other stations during 2025.

While travel to/from Newcastle, North Tyneside and destinations south will likely be the predominant direction of travel, there is a significant number who also travel northbound; travel to cities in Scotland such as Edinburgh and Glasgow is not uncommon, and again there is a strong ‘within Northumberland’ market, with people in SE Northumberland travelling north for days out/holidays etc regularly (i.e. families going to Alnwick for Lilidorei & The Alnwick Garden for example, or holiday parks such as Haggerston Castle being common examples).

As a relatively short, existing, and open route between two major passenger routes, and existing proposals to use most of the route for other passenger services anyway, the Hepscott Line stands out as a potential ‘quick win’ by simply using the Morpeth North Curve for routine, scheduled passenger services for the first time since it was built in 1980.

There has been history of this route being used as a diversionary route, with rolling stock such as the Class 43 ‘HST’s’ being an occasional sight over the route, as the photos below show.

An unidentified HST passing Backworth on a diversion on 25th June 1984, photo by kind permission of Ian Royston.

A regular service, calling at stations on the route at that time wasn’t possible due to the demolition of most platforms and stations during the 1970’s, but now with the Northumberland Line scheme drawing towards completion, this is now very much changed, and trains over these lines could now call at stations en-route.

This would give towns such as Blyth, Bedlington and more a much improved connections heading North, as travelling south to go north is illogical, especially when a direct route exists, and simply needs to be implemented. Even for Ashington, while the service wouldn’t be direct, a simple change of train at Bedlington or Blyth Bebside would be far easier than travelling into Morpeth or Newcastle.

It is not a gimmick or gadgetbahn solution to a problem, it is a POTS (Plain Old Train Service), and since the route is a link between two passenger lines, it wouldn’t require any new stations to make it ‘work’; although a service on this route could serve a proposed reopened/new station at Choppington, a growing area for housing both in Choppington but also serving a large area of Bedlington better?

Regular use would also maintain diversionary route knowledge, useful in the event of issues with Plessey Viaduct if they were to occur again as they did in October 2023, which reduced the route to a single line, use of the route via Bedlington could allow the diversion of some trains to help maintain the timetable.

This adds up to the potential of a low risk, low cost route, that could offer a high reward, so why not trial it?

Welcome link from The Guardian and November 2024 the best month yet for the N.C.L. website!

A welcome link from The Guardian!

This article from The Guardian, published back in October 2024 has been generating a few links through to our webpage, as the original piece has (very welcomly) been amended to provide a direct link to this page (as can be seen below).

If any other articles by The Guardian, or any other publications wish to directly link to the Northumberland Coast Loop website, please feel welcome to do so!

Terrific Traffic on the Webpage

November 2024 was the best month for the N.C.L. website yet, with a fantastic 937 visitors over the course of the month viewing the website and blog posts 1,122 times over the course of November, marking the best month since launching in January 2024.

December, despite only being a few days in has started very strongly, and there is a chance that overall figures may get into five figures before the end of 2024.

Thank you to all who have visited so far and please feel welcome to share this and other blog posts via your social media to raise awareness of the campaign for the Northumberland Coast Loop!

Northumberland Line Opening on December 15th, the new LNER Timetable, and the N.C.L an alternative route for the ECML?

Northumberland Line Opening!

In some very welcome news, the Northumberland Line has finally been given an opening date of Sunday 15th December 2024.

This is a very welcome step forward for many of the large towns in South East Northumberland, which haven’t seen a rail service since 2nd November 1964, so a little over 60 years of being unserved by rail, yet was tantalizingly close with the railway remaining open for railfreight, occasional diversions, and railtours.

Only two stations; Ashington, and Seaton Delaval, will be open from the outset, with Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, and Northumberland Park to come into use during 2025.

I look forward to riding on the line at the earliest opportunity, and hopefully it’ll be roaring success right from the start.

New LNER Near Four Hour Edinburgh to London Journey Time: Both Good and Bad?

There has also been a recent announcement in The Scotsman about LNER getting a timetable change that would result in a regular service between the Scottish and English capitals of just four hours and 10 minutes, calling only at Newcastle and York.

While this is aimed at gaining modal shift from air travel, which is unarguably a good thing to deal with the emissions from domestic flights by moving people by electric trains instead, there is a drawback of these trains being non-stop through Northumberland (and other places).

These non-stop trains use a lot of capacity on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), meaning that there is pressure to reduce station calls at smaller stations such as Morpeth, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), and Berwick, with the smallest stations such as Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington, Pegswood, and even Cramlington less likely to see an improved service, especially a local (all station) service.

Whilst it may be possible to serve some stations better via semi-fast ‘skip-stop’ trains, such as Transpennine Express (TPE) serving Chathill, which of course is a very welcome step, it does show how the pressure on the ECML to provide long-distance services between Edinburgh and London has a clear negative effect locally in Northumberland

There is an urgent need to more comprehensively look at the rail infrastructure of the Northumberland Coast, to allow both services to run to better effect; schemes like Belford Station need to be built and have regular services just as much as ‘flight-beater’ expresses need to rattle through Northumberland at speed.

On that last point, it again points to the absurdity of the Morpeth Curve, as a 50mph stretch of the ECML, remaining in place on the mainline in 2024, when almost 150 years ago, a new line was proposed by Captain Henry Tyler of HMRI as far back as 1877. A new alignment to bypass this sharp curve could both boost local connectivity through released capacity, whilst also further cutting journey times, a win-win.  Please read our previous blog here for more info.

The Northumberland Coast Loop: A Alternative Route for the ECML?

A diverted HST passing the former site of Backworth Station, 25th June 1984 by Ian Royston

As the Northumberland Line moves closer to completion, it opens up the potential for it to work as an alternative route between Newcastle and Edinburgh for regular, scheduled passenger services, as a train could run between the two cities either via Cramlington or via Bedlington, both routes having been possible direct since 1980 after construction of the Morpeth North Curve.

The above image, kindly shared by Ian Royston, shows a diverted HST passing the site of the former Backworth Station in 1984, following a derailment at Morpeth Curve. At the time of this photo, the stations on the Blyth and Tyne route had been closed for almost 20 years, with all apart from the single platform at Bedlington removed by that date.

That situation is now changed, with Seaton Delaval now due to open on the 15th of this month (December 2024), with Northumberland Park, Newsham, Blyth Bebside and a now two platform Bedlington due to join in 2025; meaning that services via this route could stop and pick up/set down passengers.

This could allow a town such as Cramlington, that whilst having its own station, sadly suffers from a relatively poor service pattern, being mainly served by Newcastle to Morpeth local trains only;  whereas a route via Blyth would allow something of an agglomeration benefit by serving multiple large towns more directly (Blyth Bebside for example is within easy reach of Blyth, Cramlington, Bedlington, Ashington and Newbiggin via both Northumberland Line itself (and hopefully future expansion to Newbiggin), as well as local bus services.

Taking approximately 40 mins between Newcastle and Pegswood via Blyth, the route is slower than the 20 min journey time via Cramlington, but by serving such large settlements more directly than at present would give these areas a further boost, and at relatively little additional cost.

Station Proposals at Killingworth and Belford, and the Morpeth Diversion

In the last few days, two articles cite plans for new stations at Killingworth in North Tyneside, and at Belford in North Northumberland on the East Coast Main Line (ECML).

We’ll explore the opportunities and challenges of both of these stations below.

Killingworth Station

A new station at Killingworth on the East Coast Main Line has long been proposed, with the former station closing on 15th September 1958 to passengers and completely on 7th June 1965.

This was one of many stations between the currently open Manors Station and Cramlington that were closed to traffic, the others being Heaton, Forest Hall, and finally Annitsford, closing in 1980, 1958, and 1963 respectively.

Whilst a new station at Killingworth is certainly not unwelcome by any stretch, the layout of such a station would need careful consideration; if it is built similarly to Cramlington, where it is simply platforms adjacent to the existing two lines, it might suffer the similar drawbacks of limited services calling there, as at Cramlington, which has a modest local service and not many other connections, despite it being the second largest town in Northumberland and on the same line as Morpeth.

This is because any service stopped at stations with just one northbound and one southbound line (as most between Newcastle and Edinburgh stations are laid out), means that following trains either have to slow down/stop behind the stopping train, or a large gap must be left in the timetable behind it, to avoid the stopping train being caught up too quickly.

If Killingworth is to have loops where a stopping service can reside while faster non-stop services overtake, that could allow more services to call at the station without as much disruption to the timetable.

On this we’ll need to await more detailed information, but a quicker solution to serve the Killingworth area with long distance rail services (complementing already reasonable access to Tyne and Wear Metro), would be to implement the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop service, which would call at Northumberland Park station (opening in 2025) in North Tyneside to give the area new rail links.

This could certainly help build a business case for a new station at Killingworth, by establishing a market for long-distance services serving North Tyneside via Northumberland Park, with an improved bus connection direct to Northumberland Park easily implemented.

So in summary, lets see the Northumberland Coast Loop service begin, establish a market via Northumberland Park as a starting step/interim solution until/if Killingworth gets a renewed station?

Belford Station

Belford is the second station proposal on the ECML, several dozen miles north between Berwick and Chathill. This station has once again been long advocated for, with the Belford Rail Users Group arguing for the station since 2001.

As mentioned at the start of the post, stations where loops are available for stopping trains to refuge in, and allow for non-stop trains to overtake is preferable over simply plonking platforms against an existing line and resulting in stations having a relatively poor service due to timetable constraints.

Belford is in the very fortunate position of these loops already being in existence, so is perhaps a no-brainer of a station location to provide a good level of service, while not impeding the fast services also using the ECML.

With our recent analysis revealing that almost one million station entries and exits were made between Berwick and Pegswood last year (2023/24), and Belford being in a key position in North Northumberland, and it could easily offer onward bus connections

Belford: JDI!

Given its long, consistent campaign since 2001, and a certain, proven market in North Northumberland for inward and outward rail travel, in my view, it should be built as soon as possible, and not be a 2036 project (why should it take 12 years from now given at least 23 years of knowledge?)

It certainly shouldn’t need 35 years from start of campaign to delivery (2001 – 2036), for a station on an already working passenger route surely?

I would propose a two phase fix for Belford:

Belford Phase 1 could be a quick win of a platform on the siding where the ‘Chathill Flyer’ reverses direction every morning and evening, which should be quickly deliverable as a bay platform like that at Ashington, with modest car park/bus interchange provided nearby. A temporary platform could be a very quick win indeed if the will is there to provide one?

Belford Phase 2 would likely be a (slightly) longer term scheme to build new platforms adjacent to the loop lines at Belford, again with car parking/bus interchange facilities provided, but again, it should be far from needing until 2036 to deliver this.

Beyond Belford and Killingworth

Below are a few suggestions for wider new stations (inc those relocated slightly from existing positions).

Alnmouth (for Alnwick): relocation of the station onto Wooden Gate loops could allow similar improvements to rail services by allowing stopping trains to be overtaken by non-stop services, improving line capacity and allowing new station to be built without disruption to existing station.

Chevington: reopened station to allow slower trains that already refuge in the loops (Chathill Flyer) to pick up/drop off passengers, and to avoid the sensation of trains ‘stopping in middle of nowhere’ for pathing reasons.

Building the Morpeth Diversion for Pegswood, Morpeth, and the Branch to Bedlington

The potentially the best way to alleviate congestion in/through Pegswood, Morpeth, and across both junctions leading to/from Bedlington is to bypass the whole lot, which would allow trains stopping at Morpeth and/or Pegswood to be unaffected by non-stop trains as these would use the new higher speed avoiding line (also improving safety by avoiding the notorious Morpeth Curve, site of three derailments, six fatalities in 1969, and fortunately none in the derailments of 1984 and 1994).

This diversion has been proposed since 1877 when Captain Henry Tyler, a notable member of HM Railway Inspectorate said “It would obviously be better if a deviation line could be constructed, to avoid the use of such a sharp a curve on a main line”. Wise words considering the fatal consequences of the curve on 7th May 1969 when ‘The Aberdonian’ hauled by D9011 ‘The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers‘ came to grief on the curve. Later accidents in 1984 and 1994 were fortunately not fatal ones, but show that this curve could still pose a significant risk to this day.

The benefits to Morpeth, Pegswood and services to/from Bedlington would be via the present mainline having a much quieter timetable, being reduced to a secondary route, allowing more services to serve both of the stations, or come to/from Bedlington.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments, or on our social media pages!

Northumberland Line News: Ashington and Seaton Delaval to open before Christmas, the other four opening in 2025.

This article from BBC News states that while the Northumberland Line is due to open before Christmas 2024, it will do so with only Ashington and Seaton Delaval Stations, with Newsham now delayed into 2025, joining the other stations of Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Northumberland Park.

A further announcement of an opening date is expected in the coming days.

While there have been notable difficulties surrounding the project with unmapped and challenging mineworkings to stabilise, horrendous weather conditions, and rampant inflation and shortages of materials, it has been more than a little disappointing to have so little communication forthcoming from those in charge of the project.

Delays can’t be helped, it is a complex project being built in a heavily mined region of the UK. That being said, communication of the developments has been to many rather poor, and rather than reliance on the rumour grapevine for news, or inferring it from disparate sources of information such as timetables etc; it would have been far better for an open and honest approach of explaining how long a delay is anticipated, and what the cause is at the earliest opportunity.

The Northumberland Line was originally due to fully open in December 2023; so it is already at least a year behind it’s original schedule, perhaps almost two by final completion, and with the line being closed since November 1964 to passengers, a few more months delay has been said by many ‘to not matter all that much’.

With that in mind, can we please see a more open approach to the project going forwards?

Better use of the Northumberland Line website.

In my own view, a clear, published expected date of completion for each station should be published on the dedicated Northumberland Line website, to act as a single, authoritative source of information, and if any further delays are anticpated, the reasons for this are clearly stated for all to see, squashing the often flawed rumour mill. 

Please, can we have this actioned?

Smashing Statistics for November on the N.C.L. Website!

Today has absolutely blown past the 5000 visitor mark (5,182 as of this evening) to the website from its launch earlier this year (2024), and has been viewed well over 6000 times!

Thank you to everyone who’s visited the website, and please like our social media,  share blog posts and more to keep growing the reach of the campaign!

Thanks, RH.

Almost One Million Rail Passengers Using Railway Stations Between Pegswood and Berwick Upon Tweed in 2023/24

This Northumberland Gazette article ‘The most and least used train stations in Northumberland as new rail passenger numbers revealed‘ details the most and least used stations in Northumberland as a whole, from Acklington at 17th place, to Berwick Upon Tweed at the top. This is based on figures from April to March each year, so April 2022/March 2023 and April 2023/March 2024 respectively is referred to here.

For the Northumberland Coast Loop route, only the stations between Pegswood and Berwick Upon Tweed are relevant for the campaign, so those along the Tyne Valley Line have been excluded entirely, whilst Morpeth and Cramlington have been separated from the other stations but remain included to see the ECML route as a whole.

Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Alnmouth (for Alnwick) dominate North Northumberland Rail Usage.

As can be seen from the above table, the stations at Berwick and Alnmouth (first and fourth place for overall usage in Northumberland respectively), make up the vast majority of the 988,782 passenger entries and exits on this section of the ECML along the Northumberland Coast, in 2022/23, this figure was 898,846 persons, increasing by 84,352 for the most recent year to 983,198 entries and exits.

The ‘Chathill Flyer’ Isn’t Good Enough.

The smaller stations at Chathill, Acklington, Widdrington, and Pegswood contributed an additional 5886 passengers in 2022/23, falling by 302 overall (Acklington had modestly increased ridership by 116 users), with additional 5,584 users in the 2023/24 year.

It is worth noting that the ONLY service to call at these smaller stations is the twice daily ‘Chathill Flyer’, which doesn’t run on Sundays and makes the usefulness of these stations fairly limited, meaning ridership figures are unlikely to improve without a rail service improvement.

Campaigns like that of CRAG (Chathill Rail User Group), alongside that of Railfuture, to campaign for better services at these smaller stations could have the potential to lift these user numbers significantly.

One Million or More in 2024/25?

This gives a total for the most recent year (2023/24) across these six stations of 988,782 entries and exits, meaning only 11,218 additional rail passengers are needed to make this a one million entry/exit section of line; not even accounting for the vast majority of rail passengers who’ll simply pass through Northumberland on longer trips.

If Berwick and Alnmouth see improvements to services, it is almost undoubtedly going to result in even greater ridership figures at these two busy stations (seeing 0.63m and 0.35m each respectively in most recent figures). Especially for Alnmouth, better bus connections to towns such as Alnwick and Amble, as well as villages like Rothbury and Wooler (by extending buses terminating at Alnwick Bus Station onto Alnmouth Railway Station?) could make rail travel much more viable for the local area, especially for those who don’t drive or wish to not take the car to the station.

The biggest potential gains to be made, however, is arguably at stations like Chathill, which is well positioned to serve the so-called ‘rail desert’ between Berwick and Alnmouth, and could serve major attractions like Bamburgh Castle, the Farne Islands and maybe even the Lindisfarne/Holy Island market (about 800,000 per year visiting Lindisfarne according to this BBC article, so even a 10% shift to rail via Chathill would be 80,000, a significant lift in usage from recent 1,264 using the station!). Stations like Acklington, Widdrington, and Pegswood would similarly benefit from an uplift in rail services too; serving the more urban areas in the former Northumberland Coalfield areas, as well as beautiful stretches of coast like Druridge Bay, or developing attractions like Northumberland Zoo near Felton.

Let’s hope that in the Railway200 year that is fast approaching, we can give all of the nation’s rail network a renewed focus on developing the rail network by both reopening lines such as the soon to reopen Northumberland Line (first phase due to open December 2024, with stations opening progressively through 2025), but also better service patterns at smaller stations such as Chathill.

A further hope for the future is that this ‘million user’ stretch between Pegswood and Berwick could be linked to the potentially highly successful Northumberland Line in the near future too, proof will be in the figures over coming years, but other station openings have proven generally highly successful, so watch this space!

#NorthumberlandByRail

Northumberland Line Preview Video by Northumbria Rail

In the last few days, Northern has been offering a handful of preview trips over the Northumberland Line prior to opening, with Northumbria Rail recording a trip made on 20/11/2024 and uploaded to YouTube.

This video shows progress on the line and stations up to that date, with latest news being an announcement in next few days (at time of writing this post on 24/11/2024).

The interest in this video for the Northumberland Coast Loop comes between 17:00 to 18:40 in the video, where the train passes Bedlington Furnaceway sidings (where the railtour alluded to was the Blyth and Tyne Mini Tour operated by UK Railtours on 8th June 2024, I was also aboard and recorded my own video from Furnaceway Sidings to Morpeth).

As can be seen in the Northumbria Rail Video, the Hepscott Line branches off towards Morpeth and Pegswood, with the latter route offering the proposed connection from Bedlington towards North Northumberland and Scotland.

Whilst it is understandable that getting all six new Northumberland Line stations open (Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park) is the priority in the coming months, and allowing service to establish itself, the aim of this campaign is to see trains take the Hepscott Line heading north or coming from the north of Northumberland/Scotland towards Bedlington as soon a practicable after that point.

Time on a train is not time lost

While better connections into Central Station will certainly make rail travel more appealing by making changing trains easier, there is almost certainly a market for direct services; many people, especially those less familiar with using public transport, dislike changes of transport, especially for groups such as families with young children where the ability to settle into a carriage is much more convenient, even if the trip overall may be longer.

The same can be said for those travelling for business, where the ability to work on the move (at a laptop, iPad or similar) and not having to pack up for a change of train could be advantageous. With Blyth and the surrounding area seeking to attract nationally and even internationally important businesses, then rail links to other cities beyond Newcastle could help drive that investment, and with the route already in place, it could be a relatively inexpensive option for huge economic gains.

Northumberland Line, Quiet Stations On ECML and N.C.L. Fix For The Future?

23.11.24

Northumberland Line Opening Date

At time of writing, the Northumberland Line is due to partially open at some point in December 2024. There has not been an officially announced date as of yet, with announcement from Northumberland County Council saying this will come in the next few days, whilst Northern has updated their website with a draft version of the N1 timetable covering the area, showing December 15th as the date the timetable starts from.

Timetables on Real Time Trains give an idea of timings, but are showing only Ashington, Seaton Delaval and Manors as potential stops at present, with Newsham, Blyth Bebside, Bedlington, and Northumberland Park to come later (as yet unconfirmed dates).

Hopefully an official announcement will come soon, and the whole scheme with all six stations being open by end of 2025.

Quietest Stations on ECML in Northumberland – Better Services Needed & New Station at Belford too!

Alongside the awaited opening of the Northumberland Line, is the recent release of usage figures for already open stations in North Northumberland, with the frequently featured stations at Acklington and Chathill having 550 and 1,264 passengers respectively between April 2023 and March 2024.

This is somewhat unsurprising given the only services to call at these stations is the so-called ‘Chathill Flyer’, which runs twice a day between Newcastle and Chathill (plus an empty run from Chathill to sidings at Belford and back to Chathill to form the return service to Newcastle).

There has been a recent call by the Chathill Rail Action Group (CRAG) to see Transpennine Express (TPE) to serve Chathill, offering potentially a major boost to services with an extra eight trains a day call at the station, putting Newcastle only 40mins away, and Edinburgh 55mins away.

A new station at Belford has also been announced with, ‘The North of Tyne Combined Authority’s Local Transport Plan proposes the station would serve the village of Belford and the surrounding catchment area of north Northumberland at a cost of £14,070,000, with an estimated delivery date of 2036.‘

Hopefully it’ll not take until 2036 for Belford Station to be opened, especially as plans for a station there have been mooted as far back as Alan Beith MP mentioning it in Parliament in 2007.

Both of these proposals, the first simply a timetable change, and the latter a new station at Belford, would go a long way to solving the ‘rail desert’ in this part of North Northumberland which is a major tourism hotspot with Bamburgh Castle, the Farne Islands, Beadnell and wider Northumberland Coast all being within easy reach of Chathill, and would complement other services calling at Berwick and Alnmouth stations too.

Book Review: How The Railways Will Fix The Future by Gareth Dennis

This book is an excellent read for anyone in the transport advocacy world, and while my reading time has been limited by work lately, it reaffirms the view that to meet multiple challenges at local, national and international scales, we need to invest in and plan for a much expanded rail network, to allow more people to travel car-free, reduce highly damaging carbon emissions and reduce road congestion and parking problems that are developing, if not already present, in Northumberland today. 

Schemes like the Northumberland Line are a part of that picture, as is better services to small stations like Chathill, but there is a clear need to have a strategic, overall vision for what is needed in this area of Northumberland; is the ECML to be dominated by expresses between Edinburgh and London, or can a more balanced service exist where there are sufficient, good local services alongside these expresses?

Do we invest in schemes like a Morpeth Diversion to take the notorious Morpeth Curve off the ‘mainline’ and retain the old line for better local services and railfreight using the Morpeth to Bedlington or Pegswood to Bedlington routes?

We need to move people and goods by much cleaner and greener modes of transport than private car and HGV, and schemes like dualling of the A1, given the magnitude of climate change are ones we should perhaps permanently consign to the dustbin; but mobility is a right of people, so we must provide a viable alternative by much improving public transport, of which rail will be a definite major player.

2025 – The Year of the Northumberland Coast Loop?

All three of the above, I feel, link in nicely to the Northumberland Coast Loop, which would be a potential solution to many of the problems in this part of Northumberland.

This route connects the ECML between Morpeth and Pegwood to the Northumberland Line at Bedlington via the village Hepscott, the existing line primarily used for freight currently, but potentially a useful route for passengers, not before easily done in a northward direction before, as the Morpeth North Curve that enables the direct route wasn’t built until 1980, sixteen years after the closure of the remaining Blyth and Tyne Railway stations in 1964.

The Northumberland Line, while only partially opening next month, is seeing the return of rail services to the former Blyth and Tyne route, serving the most highly populated areas of Northumberland (about 50% of everyone in N’land lives in the South East corner of the county) after a little over 60 year absence.

This places major towns like Bedlington and Blyth, major conurbations like North Tyneside, as well as smaller settlements like Seaton Delaval back onto the national network, initially with a service into Newcastle Central Station, but the Hepscott Line offers an additional option to travel directly to or from North Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, Edinburgh or even places beyond; why not use it to offer those connections as soon as possible?

The stations in North Northumberland, while remaining open have been quite poorly served for far too long, stopping trains such as TPE will go a long way as an initial step to improvement, but a more comprehensive range of services could make better connections possible, for example a N.C.L route, alongside those on current mainline via Cramlington, would offer a near direct connection from Blyth to Bamburgh Castle, or from Belford to events at Blyth Battery (WW1 & 2 Coastal Defences).

Northumberland Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) in East Cramlington is another good example, where the NCL route to/from North Northumberland could hold advantages over the present mainline via Cramlington; as Seaton Delaval Station is only approx 1.8 miles away from the hospital, whereas Cramlington Station is approx 2.6 miles away, not worlds of difference, but illustrates that both routes would offer good options for travel.

Utilising this existing rail route could allow many more journeys between SE Northumberland, North Tyneside, North Northumberland and Scotland to be done by public transport, travelling via Newcastle, while always an option, is a bit strange when a direct route is already possible via Hepscott. You wouldn’t drive south to head north, so why would you do this on a train when looking out the window at Bedlington the route to Morpeth and Pegswood is clearly there?

The Northumberland Coast Loop route from Newcastle to Berwick via Bedlington isn’t to replace other services, but to complement them by offering faster, single seat rides to, from, or within Northumberland.

If you’d like to support this proposal, please put it forward to your local elected representatives (County Councillors, MP’s etc), contact local rail campaign groups, or submit to to the Local Transport Plan Consultation by the North East Combined Authority.

Thanks, RH.

Implement the Northumberland Coast Loop to help achieve Northumberland’s Carbon Neutral by 2030 target?

The Northumberland Climate Change November Update email dropped into my inbox yesterday (8th November 2024),

The big green button takes you to the NCC Climate Change page, where you can view the above document. For rail, little is mentioned beyond the Northumberland Line scheme, but it is interesting to note that approximately 50% of the entire population of the County lives in SE Northumberland, and could make use of the Northumberland Line.

With the Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.) being a route that directly serves five out of the six Northumberland Line stations (the only exception being Ashington), then the N.C.L. would equally serve this population centre well. Ashington could be served in two ways, via simply changing train at Bedlington, Blyth Bebside or any other station onto an N.C.L. service, or travelling to nearby Pegswood station, which also offers residents of Morpeth an option to utilise the proposed rail services.

It would be a massive boost to public transport options, allowing more to travel without needing to drive, cutting CO² emissions and further reducing congestion.

The N.C.L. route would build on the existing investment in the Northumberland Line by simply offering a wider range of destinations available from the newly built stations; while the greatest volumes will tend towards Newcastle and destinations beyond, there is still a substantial market for people heading north, both for work and for leisure.

Conversely, people in North Northumberland or Scottish Borders may well be encouraged to travel to SE Northumberland for work, given the major industrial areas in that part of the county.

NSECH at Cramlington is a good example, as it is actually closer to Seaton Delaval station than it is Cramlington station, and so could be the best station to serve this major hospital for both staff travelling to/from work, and also visitors, especially since Cramlington has traditionally difficult to reach due to stopping patterns of ECML trains.

Some examples of local leisure trips could be people in SE Northumberland taking a day out to places like Alnwick for Barter Books, Bamburgh Castle and more. Equally, sites like Seaton Delaval Hall, Woodhorn Museum, Blyth Battery, Port of Blyth (hosting Tall Ships, or Galleon Andalucia which attracted several thousand visitors to Blyth during its brief visit in July 2024), would draw visitors from North Northumberland and Scotland into SE Northumberland. With thirteen stations along the proposed route between just Newcastle and Berwick, there could be a vast array of journeys met by this route.

Others will be travelling longer distances to Scottish cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen, or for smaller destinations within Scotland via these cities. An example would be to connect with flights at Scottish Airports, or at events such as Taylor Swift.

The Edinburgh Fringe is a good example of additional services being provided to cope with demand for travel to Scotland, with the N.C.L., this could mean some services via Morpeth and some via Blyth in future?

Using the Hepscott Line to travel more directly between SE Northumberland and North Northumberland or Scotland would make the option to use rail much more attractive, with reduced journey times, a single seat ride avoiding the challenges of changing trains (especially with young children, luggage etc), and being an active line already for freight, and with regular use currently by Northern DMU’s for proposed Morpeth – Bedlington service, the route should be relatively inexpensive to develop, the line is already in place, let’s just use it.