Green Signals Podcast – GBRf North Blyth to Fort William Alumina Train Trip & Chathill News

Episode 48 of the Green Signals podcast (29th August 2024) had a segment on the North Blyth to Fort William Alumina train.

Richard Bowker, one of the podcast hosts was joined by John Smith, CEO of GBRf on part of the route in Scotland, discussing a broad picture of this particular service, as well as the broader picture of railfreight in Scotland and wider UK, well worth a watch (as ever of this interesting and informative podcast).

For the Northumberland Coast Loop proposal, this freight run is of particular interest as it uses the vast majority of the route, by ‘starting’ at Bedlington Sidings (where it has run around after coming from North Blyth), passing along the Hepscott Line, then heading towards Fort William by taking the Morpeth North Curve and joining the East Coast Main Line (ECML) near Pegswood on it’s way north.

For passenger services, the intention of the Northumberland Coast Loop would be for these services to begin at Newcastle Central, take the soon to open Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, and then following this currently freight only route along the Hepscott Line, join the ECML near Pegswood and run north.

Potential Passenger Services and Chathill News

Route map of the Northumberland Coast Loop (N.CL.)

N.C L. local service: Calling at all stations en-route between Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Newcastle-Upon Tyne via Bedlington, providing stronger ‘within Northumberland’ connectivity, and building upon recent bus improvements announced to places like Chathill and the proposal to also reopen Belford Station to drive modal shift of people away from cars and onto rail to access North Northumberland, which is a popular day-out destination from South East Northumberland and North Tyneside, which the N.C.L. route could help serve.

HST on the Hepscott Line in 2017.

N.C.L. Semi-fast service: A longer distance service (i.e. Edinburgh – Newcastle or points beyond) could also run via this route, but calling at only two stations, which would be Northumberland Park in North Tyneside, and Blyth Bebside in Northumberland.

This service could serve a much wider market of travel to, from, and within Northumberland by making rapid, direct links possible to many areas of the UK.

Taking Blyth Bebside station as an example, it is very well located to serve not only the town of Blyth (largest in Northumberland), but is arguably also well located to also serve Cramlington, Bedlington, and also Ashington by onward connections by both bus and rail to these towns, as well as a location just off the A189 Spine Road.

Compared to using Morpeth Railway station, which isn’t always easy to reach via public transport, is too distant for reasonable active travel access and constrained for car parking; Blyth Bebside is closer to reach by walking/cycling, is situated very close to the Cowpen Road route into Blyth which is already a major bus route, and the A189 plus large car park make it more suited to those that need to travel by car to reach the station.

A wider range of rail services could be a massive economic boost to Blyth, which would be a good fit with the £90m ‘Energising Blyth’ programme, which seeks to ‘Create 7,500 jobs, 5,000 learning opportunities, and attract over 100,000 extra visitors to Blyth each year.‘, and ‘Improve walking and cycling routes and connections to public transport networks, making it easier to travel to and from Blyth.’

Both of the above aims would be supported by the Northumberland Coast Loop route for both local and long distance services, which could help Blyth (and surrounding areas achieve becoming a ‘…thriving UK and international centre of renewable energy and advanced manufacturing growth and innovation, providing new jobs, better skills, more homes, and a clean environment for people in the town and the wider North East region.‘.

Petition News

The N.C.L petition continues to perform well too, with 662 signatures to date, and if you haven’t signed already, please do so!

Little-known Line Could Boost Coastal Connectivity

The picture below shows Class 66 (66301) hauling the regular North Blyth to Fort William ‘Alcan’ tanks (filled with Alumina at Port of Blyth and taken to the Alvance smelter near Fort William) along the Morpeth North Curve which links the Hepscott Line between Bedlington and Morpeth to the East Coast Main Line.

This freight starts from the Port of Blyth, reverses in the sidings at Bedlington, then takes the Hepscott Line towards Morpeth, but then diverges onto the Morpeth North Curve to take a direct path towards Pegswood and the north, passing through stations such as Alnmouth, Berwick Upon Tweed, Reston, Dunbar and on to Edinburgh and beyond.

The Northumberland Coast Loop proposes  that passenger services could follow a similar route, starting at Newcastle and taking the soon to open Northumberland Line route as far as Bedlington, the services could then take the branch westwards at Bedlington (the Hepscott Line), and following this freight path, access the ECML facing northwards toward Berwick Upon Tweed, which means a direct link between Berwick and Blyth by rail could be realised.

As my constituency MP, I have already proposed this connection to David Smith, newly elected MP for North Northumberland, as well as this ongoing petition to Glen Sanderson, leader of Northumberland County Council which at time of writing has 658 signatures.

If you’d like to see this route as one of the next expansions of the Northumberland Line, please contact your local MP, County Councillors and Town/Parish Councils to offer your support, as well as signing the petition above.

Thanks, RH.

Bedlington Station Update 14th August 2024 and its place in ‘Railway 200’?

Station Updates (Northumberland Line project)

A new ‘fly through’ video of Bedlington has just been released by NorthumberlandTV (YouTube Channel) which shows the final plans for Bedlington Station, and the complexity of the site between a junction at the northern end and a level crossing on the southern end.

There is also an update on the Northumberland Line website about the recent Bedlington Station drop-in event, with some of the Q&A on the evening quoted to give added info.

Northumberland Coast Loop proposals

With the forthcoming ‘Railway 200’ celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (one of the railways seen as the beginning of the  ‘modern era’ of rail technology, with railways themselves dating back to at least Ancient Greece), hopefully Bedlington Station will be completed fairly early in 2025 to showcase its important role 200 years ago.

As stated in a previous post for a ‘Railway Quarter’ in Bedlington, the town, and particularly the ironworks/engineworks in Blyth Valley was where a pivotal development in rail technology took place; with the malleable iron rail by John Birkinshaw being patented.

This new rail was vastly superior to the cast iron ‘fishbellied’ rails that had gone before, and George Stephenson recognised this and against his own investment and interests in in cast iron rail making, adopted the malleable iron rail for the S&D, being used for about 2/3rds of the whole length of the line (sourced from the Friends of the S&D).

Building of locomotives in the Blyth Valley was also a major enterprise, with the first locomotives in the Netherlands (‘De Arend‘) and Italy (‘Vesuvio’ and ‘Bayard‘) all Bedlington built locomotives, and perhaps R.B. Longridge could claim the title of the most northerly loco builder in England?

There is also the Gooch family, most notably Sir Daniel Gooch who was locomotive engineer to Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and is recorded as selecting Swindon as the location of the works for the Great Western Railway, but many members of his family were heavily involved in railway history.

Could bi-mode GWR 800004 ‘Sir Daniel Gooch’ possibly traverse the route on a special service, or would LNER consider also naming one of their bi-mode units ‘Sir Daniel Gooch’ too?

With the Northumberland Line due to fully complete in 2025, co-inciding with this major anniversary, could there be scope to offer regular services from further afield (esp at weekends, bank holidays etc) to showcase this often overlooked but important place in railway history?

The Northumberland Coast Loop could allow for a Newcastle – Edinburgh service to pass directly over the Blyth Valley where the works was located, and if stopping trains were enabled at either Blyth Bebside or Bedlington, they could offer a tourism gain for the area with visiting fans of industrial heritage, and fittingly, bring them in via a newly reopened railway?

Bedlington Station Fly Through & Railway 200

Please click here to view the Bedlington Station Fly Through video from NorthumberlandTV.

Bedlington is due to open in 2025, after Northumberland Line services begin in December 2024.

Hopefully Bedlington will open before September 2025, as Bedlington Ironworks played an important role in the fledgling Stockton and Darlington Railway by providing about two-thirds of the rails used for the line, so should be an important part of the overall celebration of the S&D in my view, and the Northumberland Coast Loop could allow for railtours and other special trains to pass very close to the site of the Ironworks, and help provide a tourism boost to the area too as part of this widely recognised ‘Railway 200‘?

A blast from the past at Berwick Station

On the last day of my family holiday, a short trip was made to Marshall Meadows to visit the border crossing sign (a long-time personal intention finally crossed off), and also a visit to Berwick Station for the first time in many years.

On the border 12.8.24

The photos were taken across both the Sunday and Monday at Berwick, as an early morning Sunday walk meant the station wasn’t actually open to access the platforms.

The primary reason for visiting was to capture a new video, which you can view here, and features the front end of this HST-shaped planter on the northbound platform at Berwick…

HST-shaped planter at Berwick Upon Tweed Station 12.8.24

…

…which has a nice sense of circularity to it, as the ‘Craigentinny 100’ branding on the real HST, hauling the ‘Bound for Craigy’ railtour back in 2017 was a big part of the inspiration for the Northumberland Coast Loop in the first place.

With the petition now at 650 signatures, lets hope that the Northumberland Coast Loop can soon become a reality!

Northumberland Coast Loop Petition reaches 650 signatures, and a stay in Berwick-Upon-Tweed.

As of 11th August 2024, the Northumberland Coast Loop petition has just reached 650 signatures since starting in October 2023.

The aim of this petition is to use the Hepscott Line as one of the next expansions of the Northumberland Line beyond the soon to open Newcastle – Ashington route. 

This route is advantageous by track already being in place, and used regularly for freight; and offering a direct potential connection from South East Northumberland, and North Tyneside to North Northumberland (Alnmouth (for Alnwick), Berwick-Upon-Tweed and more), and into Scotland.

The route wouldn’t require any additional stations to be built, just to utilise the existing link between the Northumberland Line at Bedlington, and the East Coast Main Line at Pegswood.

This short link should be a relatively simple, fast to implement, and cost-effective route to make use of, providing much better connectivity both within Northumberland and to/from wider UK.

Berwick Station in the early hours of 11th August 2024
Berwick Upon Tweed station 11.8.24
As the sign states – 10.8.24
Berwick Beach 10.8.24

A recent stay in Berwick-Upon-Tweed confirmed the underlying movement of people along the route, with the owner of a neighbouring caravan travelling regularly from their home on the coast in North Tyneside to their caravan in Berwick, probably a trip made mostly by road at present, but a more direct rail service (i.e. Northumberland Park to Berwick-Upon-Tweed) could make modal shift much more easy and convenient, the same being true for other major parks such as Haggerston Castle, a VERY common destination for families from South East Northumberland.

If you support this route, please give the above petition your signature and hopefully make it a reality in the very near future.

Northumberland Coast Loop YouTube Channel

The YouTube channel is now up and running, and will steadily see additional videos added in the coming weeks, please take a look and subscribe to see latest info.

The first video is 66740 on the ‘Alcan’ tanks leaving Morpeth North Curve, headed for Fort William, with this freight service using the N.C.L. route between Bedlington and Berwick.

Hinting at the Northumberland Coast Loop back in 1992: ‘The Alternative East Coast’

This video (Railways Of The North-East in Retrospect 1961 to 1968), at  20min 35seconds in starts with a section ‘The Alternative East Coast’

The narration of the video tells us that this was a diverted Edinburgh to Kings Cross service, hauled by 43109 due to the mainline being blocked near Morpeth (due to an accident on 13th November 1992).

The train above would almost certainly have followed the proposed route of the Northumberland Coast Loop, coming off the East Coast Mainline at Morpeth North Junction, passing through Hepscott village, then Bedlington, before continuing down what is soon to reopen as the Northumberland Line later this year and into Newcastle.

While the above service was an emergency diversion, it perhaps shows a ‘What could’ve been…’ as had stations like Bedlington, Bebside, Newsham etc remained open beyond 1964, maybe a ‘mainline’ service could have happened; arguably the Port of Blyth ‘Ship Shape’ video from 1986 which highlights the ‘superb transport links, with London just three hours away by rail’.

The ‘Bound for Craigy Railtour’ in 2017 again saw an HST set traverse the route on a special working, but perhaps a glimpse at what could have been a regular site in only a slightly different set of circumstances perhaps?

With the Northumberland Line soon to open a number of stations once again, for the first time in 60 years the line will once again have regular passenger services, but could some of the trains offer direct connections to Scotland and London?

So far, 642 signatures have supported the petition to see this route be considered as a option going into the future; it would simply build upon the existing investment made into the Northumberland Line, and make use of the Hepscott Line and Morpeth North Curve, used by 43109 in the above video back in 1992 but for routine, regular services not just emergency diversions.

If you like the proposal, please share this post on your social media and reach out to your local MP’s, county councillors and local councillors to state your support for the Northumberland Coast Loop route.

N.C.L. Response to ‘Prime Minister urged to ‘unlock’ A1, Blyth Relief Road and Moor Farm Roundabout works, as well as expand the Northumberland Line’.

In yesterdays Northumberland Gazette, there was an article asking for newly elected PM Sir Keir Starmer to give his backing to major infrastructure projects in Northumberland.

While investment in Northumberland is indeed welcomed, we need to ensure such investment is right for targets needing met, and not running contrary to others, which is where our response opposes schemes such as the A1, Blyth Relief Road, but back an extended Northumberland Line (the N.C.L. itself is potentially an ideal fit for this).

A1

Probably the main headline project for Northumberland for decades, it is probably one to shelve permanently for a number of reasons:

Emissions is the main contradiction that this scheme has with other targets set both locally and nationally, with the widely known figure of 1.44m tonnes of CO2 forecasted to be released by the project. How this can sit with Net Zero targets when transport is UK’s biggest sector for emissions and roads make up the vast majority of the sectors’ emissions seems a backward step. 

Economic contribution is also debatable, with documents advocating for dualling showing a very low benefit/cost ratio (BCR) of between 0.8 & 1.4, meaning per £1 invested, a return in the range of 80p to £1.40 could be expected, so there is a sizeable amount of the range where it could be a loss maker. Indeed if a full carbon cost figure of around £800 is applied (cost per ton of carbon to mitigate effects of climate change such as requirement to build/upgrade flood defences, lost agricultural productivity etc), then the dualled A1 would  be a net negative of c. £1.2bn, meaning a large scale economic loss. (Figures from SPACE for Gosforth).

Local impacts of more car-based travel is also a major concern, with places such as Craster, Bamburgh, Alnwick etc all facing major problems with existing traffic volumes, as stated in a previous post, Northumberland faces a choice with a growing tourism sector – fall into the same trap as places like the Lake District, or do better and use the potentially fantastic public transport network (rail and bus) plus active travel corridors to deliver much more sustainable tourism access.

Union Connectivity was explored back in November 2021 by Sir Peter Hendy, now Minister of State for Rail, with the conclusion of ‘conducting an assessment of the East Coast rail and road corridor to determine appropriate investments for better connectivity between England and Scotland‘.

It would appear such a review has never been carried out, and given the need to meet Net Zero targets, any projects being taken forward should have to consider this as part of the wider economic and environmental considerations?

Let’s see such a review take place before commitment to the A1 being dualled.

Blyth Relief Road

Again, widening roads such as the A1061 to dual carriageway will carry a high carbon cost (more motoring using petrol/diesel cars leads to more emissions), and will put further pressure on internal roads within Blyth, as well as connecting routes such as A189. The logic behind the Northumberland Line itself is to reduce traffic and improve air quality by simple means of less driving, this road scheme contradicts that approach by encouraging more driving.

Given that the Northumberland Line is due to open within next few months, perhaps a fuller assessment of modal shift away from driving by active travel or integrated rail and bus services would be a better option than commitment to wider roads and more road transport.

Additionally, utilising the Northumberland Coast Loop proposal to connect Blyth to Berwick/Edinburgh by using the existing Hepscott Line/Morpeth North Curve could help drive modal shift towards rail for a greater number of present car journeys to places in North Northumberland and Scotland.

Moor Farm Roundabout

Again, modal shift away from motoring is probably the cheapest and least disruptive option by reducing vehicle volumes on the A189 through modal shift; less traffic = less congestion.

New sections of [Northumberland Line] to other stations

This is a proposal that has fullest backing, and one of the obvious contenders is the Northumberland Coast Loop itself, which, by utilising the Hepscott Line could connect Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval and Northumberland Park on the Northumberland Line, to Pegswood, Widdrington, Acklington, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), Chathill, Berwick and even Scottish stations to Edinburgh.

In summary…

…lets see an honest appraisal of rail options compared to roads with a holistic costing of each with regards Net Zero/carbon neutrality, air quality, traffic  issues etc and equality for those who can’t drive for economic or health reasons.