Avoidable Car Chaos on the Northumberland Coast?

While it is great to see articles such as the one below that recognise the beauty of the Northumberland Coast at places such as Beadnell and hopefully encourage more visitors, and consequent tourist spend; it could be chaotic to bring these tourists in by road, and repeating the problems experiences in places like the Lake District.

Below are two typical headlines seen on major news outlets, the first from the BBC, and the second from The Express. Northumberland could and should develop its tourism industry, but should aim to maintain its ‘unspoilt’ nature by avoiding a car dominant approach to tourism.

Given that places like Beadnell are so close to the East Coast Main Line (ECML), a line that connects London, Newcastle and Edinburgh as well as wider UK, it makes sense to improve access by rail (plus buses) to places along the Northumberland Coast rather than relying on roads.

RAIL NOT ROAD

To reach Beadnell, the nearest station would be Chathill, clearly seen on the above route diagram between the more major neighbouring stations at Alnmouth (for Alnwick) and Berwick (Upon Tweed) – yet at present, this station is only served by two trains daily to/from Newcastle.

It isn’t just this campaign that is setting out to see improved rail services; with the independent Chathill Rail Action Group campaigning for improved rail services too as can be seen from a recent news article below, but also long-standing campaigns from national groups like Railfuture with their North of Morpeth campaign.

As our last post describes, our petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop has now exceeded the number of signatures that the Dual the A1 petition recieved, with the dualling petition having recieved 624 signatures by time of it closing, and at time writing the N.C.L. Petition standing at 630 and still open for further signatures.

If you can, please support Northumberland to avoid the car chaos seen in the Lake District and other tourism hotspots and use our existing rail network to best effect.

More support for the Northumberland Coast Loop than Dualling the A1?

Monday 15th July 2024.

As of this evening, the Northumberland Coast Loop Petition stands at 628 signatures, which means it now has exceeded the figure achieved by the Dual the A1 from Morpeth to the Scottish Border Petition back in 2012, which only garnered 624 signatures.

The rail option, by this metric is the more popular one, and as set out below, is the better fit with national and local targets such as Net Zero (set in both Northumberland and UK-wide).

Screenshot of the still active Northumberland Coast Loop petition.
The long closed ‘Dual the A1’ petition (link to source in text above)

This is perhaps an even more stark and important comparison; as the Campaign Director, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, later became MP for Berwick-Upon-Tweed between the 2015 and 2024 elections.

The July 2024 election resulted in a decisive victory for the Labour candidate David Smith, who made not pre-election promises to dual the A1, whilst it was a central pillar of the Anne-Marie Trevelyans campaign, who came second place, followed up by the third candidate Natalie Younes of the Liberal Democrats, also campaigning for dualling of this road.

Given that result, it would give current North Northumberland MP David Smith no mandate for dualling, and goes against the grain of the wider Labour party to follow Net Zero targets and to improve the rail network.

We would like to call upon Northumberland County Council, the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to redirect funds away from the deeply flawed dualling of the A1 and instead invest into the rail network along the Northumberland Coast to bring improvements in rail services to, from, within and through Northumberland.

2024 UK Election: An Unprecedented Opportunity for the Northumberland Coast Loop?

The election just past, on 4th July 2024 resulted in a landslide vote for Labour, with every seat on the route of the Northumberland Coast Loop now taken by a Labour MP, an unprecendented situation; never before has the whole area covered by the route had all members of parliament belong to a singular party.

Map from the BBC News App (Election 24 Coverage of 2024 UK Election)

This means, in simple terms, that the whole route should stand to benefit from a cohesive voice at the highest levels, and hopefully that can be translated into real action on a route that is very, very close to being a functional reality; all the track is in situ, signalling may need modest amendments, but trains could be running fairly quickly, easily and cost-effectively. 

At time of writing, the Northumberland Coast Loop petition has the support of 569 persons, but is continuing to grow, please add your signature if you’d like to see this route become a reality to boost connections to, from and within Northumberland.

As a constituent, I’ll be reaching out in the next few days to David Smith of the North Northumberland seat to seek his support for the proposal, but I also hope that he will be joined by other members along the course of the route such as:

Ian Lavery (Blyth and Ashington),

Emma Foody (Cramlington and Killingworth),

Mary Glindon (Newcastle Upon Tyne East and Wallsend), and,

Chi Onwurah (Newcastle Upon Tyne Central and West).

The Northumberland Coast Loop could be a huge boost to connectivity to, from and within Northumberland, helping drive real economic growth, whilst also driving down carbon emissions and inequality by providing a better public transport network.

If you’d like to support this proposal, please write a letter/email to your local MP, especially if living nearby to the route, a template letter will be uploaded soon to act as a guide.

Thanks, RH.

N.C.L. Route Map
‘Bound for Craigy’ Railtour (2017) which inspired the concept of the Northumberland Coast Loop and traversed the route via Morpeth North Junction on its northbound trip.

N.C.L. Update 23rd June 2024: Petition Update, Journey Times and more!

The Northumberland Coast Loop Petition is continuing to do well and gain signatures, now only 40 away from its next big target, please click the link above to view and hopefully join more than 500 others who have done so to date!

Our recent post about journey times via the existing East Coast Main Line (ECML) has captured many site visitors (about 60 each day) in the last few days using a very rudimentary table to show potential journey times, an updated table can be viewed below, which now shows a comparison between ECML local service (based on current ‘Chathill Flyer’, and semi-fast (served by multiple operators, hence range of times for Alnmouth & Berwick).

The route via Bedlington would only be, at worst case, about 35mins or so slower than ECML only services, meaning that journey times still remain highly competitive even with driving from stations such as Alnmouth and Berwick, and still much faster than buses, especially for journeys to/from SE Northumberland.

With such a relatively small time penalty incurred by this route, it could potentially be within a reasonable balance for an operator looking to extend services north of Newcastle to cities such as Edinburgh or Glasgow, but taking this route to serve the large communities of SE Northumberland more directly, and being non-abstractive from other operators? 

For example, Grand Central service to/from Sunderland could be extended to Edinburgh or even Glasgow but use route via Bedlington to not abstract from other Newcastle – Edinburgh operators?

Grand Central could be a good fit for the N.C.L., as it would also give direct connectivity between the Northumberland and Durham Coast’s which is presently unserved by any operator, and could offer direct Teesside to Edinburgh connections too.

This is just one example, and any operator willing to serve the route would be welcomed.

As ever, if you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a comment here, or via our Social Media channels.

Newcastle to Berwick via Bedlington – Journey Times Comparison

Please see below a journey times comparison for a local (all stations service), between the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.) and the ‘Chathill Flyer’.

Times between trains are derived from the following timetables shown on Real Time Trains (RTT) as a publically accessible and free resource to fact check.

Newcastle to Chathill via Cramlington and Morpeth from the Friday evening timetable on RTT showing the Chathill service on 21.6.24.

Newcastle to Chathill ‘Chathill Flyer’ showing overall planned journey time of 58mins (21.6.24 shown with unfortunate delays showing)

Newcastle to Bedlington from previous example timetable of the Northumberland Line sourced from RTT on 3.6.24. (Shown below)

Freight timing between Bedlington (BEJ) and Pegswood (PEG) based on following timetable for North Blyth – Fort William ‘Alcan’ service minus dwell time at Coopies Lane for crew change (see below), timed at 12min assuming non-stop run.

North Blyth to Fort William ‘Alcan’ planned working on 22nd June 2024.

From the above data, plus an approximation of Chathill to Berwick Upon Tweed of 14mins, the following table was derived:

Estimated N.C.L. journey times compared to a ‘Chathill Flyer’, showing only 17mins additional journey time compared to ECML only route and calling at all stations.

Between Newcastle and Bedlington, the journey times would be identical or very close to ‘Northumberland Line’ journey times, with the trip between Bedlington and Pegswood on the Hepscott Line being estimated at a mere 12mins (assuming no stop at Morpeth North Junction), and from there identical timings along the ECML northwards to Berwick as any other local service.

This results in the N.C.L. route being slightly longer in overall journey times (longer and slower route due to more stops) but only by 17mins, at just 43 minutes.

This still compares very favourably to other public transport, where aside from the Chathill Flyer, all other options to central station would take over an hour (as shown below), and even travelling by car to Central Station would take approx 30mins.

In conclusion, the Northumberland Coast Loop could be a valuable link between the densely populated SE Northumberland area and North Northumberland, with a few key journey times to pick out:

Blyth Bebside to Alnmouth (for Alnwick): 35mins.

Blyth Bebside to Berwick-Upon-Tweed: 61mins (1hr 1min).

Northumberland Park to Alnmouth (for Alnwick): 55mins

Northumberland Park to Berwick Upon Tweed: 81mins (1hr 21mins)

If you support the Northumberland Coast Loop, please sign the petition here: https://chng.it/f6MGxdzXfJ

Northumberland Coast Loop attending the Environmental Hustings, Alnwick 19.6.24

A very good meeting tonight with five of the North Northumberland MP candidates in attendance; David Smith for the Labour Party, Anne-Marie Trevelyan for the Conservatives, and the incumbent MP for Berwick Upon Tweed, Natalie Younes for the Liberal Democrats, Georgina Hill as an independent, and Jan Rosen for the Green Party.

There was an excellent selection of questions from the packed halls at St James’s Church Centre in Alnwick (two had to be run with audio link into the second due to strength of attendance).

Sadly there wasn’t an opportunity to raise the Northumberland Coast Loop directly with the candidates tonight, but the pledges to improve public transport, and making travel in North Northumberland more sustainable will certainly be a focus for any future hustings and for the successful candidate on 4th July.

Map of the Northumberland Coast Loop
Railtour on the Hepscott Line – 8.6.24
Bound for Craigy Railtour – 2017 on the Hepscott Line
Diverted mainline service 28.6.1994

If any of the candidates would like to reach out and contact, please feel free to do so!

Blackstone Investment into Northumberland Line extensions: Is the Northumberland Coast Loop a Contender?

A recent Chronicle article suggested that the recent investment by Blackstone into Cambois could be ploughed back into the local area to realise expansion of the Northumberland Line, in this case toward Newbiggin by the Sea.

While expansion to Newbiggin is welcomed, why not also consider the Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.)?

With N.C.L. services in place, it would give the Blyth Estuary area (Bedlington, Cambois, and Blyth) better direct connections to/from North Northumberland, and Scotland.

Given that the now Blackstone owned Cambois site may bring a £10bn investment into the area; giving connections to cities such as Edinburgh, York and possibly even London could pay dividends.

The route would utilise the existing East Coast Main Line (ECML), and Northumberland Lines, joined by the existing Hepscott Line, & Morpeth North Curve to create the loop route.

It doesn’t require new track or even platforms to make happen (it would use existing ECML stations and those being built for the Northumberland Line), a few million invested into this route could bring hundreds of millions more investment along, as sites with easy connectivity around the UK tend to fare better than those without such connectivity.

Invest East Coast for example puts one third of the UK population and 47% of the UK’s economic output within 20mins of ECML stations, which typically seen as a single line of route between Edinburgh Waverley and Kings Cross; but the West Coast Main Line is more a ‘braided route’ with same start and end points but multiple options on the way. The N.C.L. could be part of a greater braiding of the ECML and bring its benefits to other places; going between Newcastle and Edinburgh could be done via two routes, one via Cramlington, but the other via Blyth, the latter slightly slower but beside a major industrial and commercial area and with major population centres too.

Importantly, it isn’t just the Blackstone site that would benefit but the wider SE Northumberland, and North Tyneside areas, which are home to many national and multinational companies, to whom easier direct connections by rail to far-flung part s of the UK could be a positive advantage. For example boosting the connectivity of Cobalt Business Park will in turn boost its competitiveness.

Make use of this existing asset to the area first?

If you agree, please take a look at the petition here: https://chng.it/f6MGxdzXfJ

Railtour on 8.6.24 along the Hepscott Line

Northumberland Coast Loop – Railtour along the Hepscott Line and Petition Update

The ‘Blyth and Tyne Mini Tour’ by UK Railtours was an excellent trip (would highly recommend using their services as they were a pleasure to deal with right from booking, through to leaving the train).

As my travel was aboard the train itself, giving an opportunity for videos of the route between Bedlington and Morpeth, I unfortunately couldn’t take any external shots in the area around Morpeth or Bedlington.

However, fortunately by the kind permission of the photographer, Steve Miller has allowed for his photo above to be used. This image shows just how close the Northumberland Coast Loop could be to reality; the route is already entirely in place to link Bedlington to Pegswood (not traversed by this railtour) and thus the ‘missing link’ between the soon to open Northumberland Line and the ECML headed north isn’t really missing at all.

Petition update: In just the last few days, the rate of signatures being added to the Northumberland Coast Loop petition has exploded, with current (22:20 on 11th June 24) figures being at 529, with Change.org stats giving 89 signatories just this week.

If you haven’t already signed, please do so using the link below 👇

https://www.change.org/p/create-the-northumberland-loop-rail-services-from-berwick-to-newcastle-via-blyth

514 and Counting!

The Northumberland Coast Loop petition has smashed the 500 signatures landmark today (10.6.24), having now reached 514, but is gaining numbers fast.

The support for the idea has been phenomenal so far, and hopefully will continue to grow as time goes on!

It would be welcome news indeed if bodies such as local rail user groups, Northumberland County Council, North Tyneside Council, as well as Parish/Town Councils and the respective local councillors, County Councillors, and newly elected MP’s come 4th July 2024 could support this idea, and hopefully everyone will see this route become one of the next additions to the North East’s public transport improvements?

If you haven’t already, please sign the petition (link at bottom of this post), and please ask your local councillors, county councillors and your prospective MP candidates if you live in the area to back the Northumberland Coast Loop.

Thanks, RH.

Edited 10.6.24 for clarity.