Way back in 2017, the ‘Bound for Craigy’ Railtour by the Branch Line Society worked a section of its quite epic trip, which starting in Kings Cross to Edinburgh over what is now being campaigned for as the Northumberland Coast Loop, which is the alternative route between Newcastle and Berwick via Bedlington.
Route map of the Northumberland Coast Loop
Between Newcastle and Berwick, this railtour headed off the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Benton Junction, travelled along the then freight only former Blyth and Tyne lines, passed the then still derelict Bedlington Station, and turned onto the freight only line via Hepscott, took the Morpeth North Curve, and rejoined the ECML at Morpeth North Junction, just to the south of Pegswood Railway Viaduct, before heading towards the Scottish capital of Edinburgh.
‘Bound for Craigy’ Railtour seen at Barrington Road, near Bedlington Station on 18th March 2017. Photo by R. Hogg.
This BLS railtour was the beginning of the idea behind the Northumberland Coast Loop, with what was to become the Northumberland Line very much taking shape at that time, it was obvious that such a route running regularly in the near future could give North Tyneside and South East Northumberland a massive connectivity boost by making use of this route headed north.
Fast forward to today (21st December 2024), almost a week on from the Northumberland Line partially opening to traffic, and as more stations are opening during the course of this year, it is making more and more sense to exploit; it could allow car free travel between SE Northumberland/North Tyneside and places in North Northumberland/Scotland more viably, rather than travelling into Newcastle Central to head north again.
I’ve booked my ticket on what promises to be a fantastic tour starting and finishing in Linlithgow, taking in Edinburgh Waverley, then the Settle and Carlisle Line, the WCML over Shap, then Tyne Valley Line back to Newcastle, before taking in the Northumberland Line, then cutting across the Hepscott Line and finally heading north back towards Linlithgow.
With some passengers potentially leaving the service in Newcastle, I have enquired if any spare seats from Central Station to Waverley/Linlithgow might be made available for those who’d like to do this shorter route.
Hopefully given the theme of Railway200 in 2025, this might be the first of many railtours making use of the route!
While this is of course welcome, and would see the original ‘Newbiggin Branch’ returned to its original length, with a new intermediate station likely to be added at Woodhorn (near to the long established Woodhorn Museum) between Ashington and Newbiggin, there perhaps is an even better case for the Northumberland Coast Loop, which will be outlined below.
N.E.R.’s Newcastle, Backworth and Morpeth Line and the Newbiggin Branch.
As stated above, the line to/from Newbiggin By The Sea was described by the OS 25 inch maps of 1892-1914 as the ‘Newbiggin Branch’, which diverged from the Newcastle, Backworth and Morpeth route at Bedlington. The two photos below show this from the excellent National Library of Scotland side by side map resource.
The ‘N.E.R. Newcastle, Backworth and Morpeth’ near to Barrington Colliery, Bedlingtonshire. The ‘N.E.R. Newbiggin Branch’ as seen near North Seaton Station, now in modern day Ashington, Northumberland.
Ad-Hoc Railway Development in South East Northumberland
Cutting a long story very short, the lines in and around this part of Northumberland developed from a complex series of amaglamations and extensions of colliery lines, some of which began in the waggonway era, the area being the first part of the North East to gain waggonways back in 1609, being introduced by Huntingdon Beaumont from Nottinghamshire.
This as-hoc development of the area’s railways meant that many lines were only strategic in as far as getting coal from pit to port, or other consumers, with passenger routes being very much a secondary consideration, and which is why using these routes is often a source of various compromises for modern-day passenger routes as the lines were built for coal traffic, not passengers.
Returning to area around the River Blyth in the 19th Century, the Blyth and Tyne Railway Company began to incorporate a number of the colliery railways into a more unified system between the 1850’s and 1870’s.
There were plans to extend as far as Warkworth Harbour (the modern day town of Amble on the Northumberland Coast), but the massive costs of building timber viaducts over the River Blyth and River Wansbeck delayed the building of the line, and when the B&TR was bought out in 1874 by the larger North Eastern Railway, which had already built the Amble Branch (now closed), there was no appetite to build a new line to Amble, so the line only ever reached Newbiggin ultimately.
The ad-hoc nature of the area’s railways still holds true today, with the route to Lynemouth Power Station being an example, an amaglamation of a former National Coal Board route and the majority of the Newbiggin Branch being combined into a single route serving the power station.
Morpeth North Curve: Pegswood to Newcastle via Bedlington…DIRECT!
A North East Curve at Morpeth was actually proposed by the North Eastern Railway in the 1880’s, as mentioned by C.R. Warn in his 1970’s books on the area’s railways, which was presumably to give pits in North Northumberland easier access to the Port of Blyth for coal shipping. Oddly for such a rich company as the North Eastern Railway, and since it was in total control of the rail network at that point, this line wasn’t built until nearly a hundred years later in 1980.
Had this curve been built back in the 19th Century, it is highly likely it would have been intensively used for coal traffic, but also likely would have seen some passenger workings alongside, which could perhaps have allowed the route to develop as an alternative route to the East Coast Main Line, and may even have prevented total closure to passengers during the 1960’s, as at that time, towns such as Blyth were still thriving hubs of heavy industry, and simply retaining stations such as Bebside and/or Newsham might have been more likely had the route seen regular through passenger traffic, and the area could have developed very differently had that been the case.
Post-war Passenger Closures and Railfreight Decline
In reality however, what became the Morpeth North Curve wasn’t built until 1980, and the Morpeth to Bedlington ‘Hepscott Line’ lost it’s regular passenger trains in 1950, and the rest of the lines in 1964.
The lines have seen occasional use for diversions during engineering works, emergencies like the accidents on the Morpeth Curve and for the odd railtour, as well as continued use for freight, but even this traffic has waned considerably with the decline of coal mining both in deep mining and opencasting. The last regular flow along the Hepscott Line now being the North Blyth – Fort William Alumina trains, and the biomass trains serving Lynemouth Power Station usually using the route via Newsham, but were for a time divered via Hepscott due to line closures for the Northumberland Line works.
Diverted HST seen on the Newcastle, Backworth and Morpeth line near Backworth in 1984, photo courtesy of I. RoystonThe North Blyth – Fort William Alumina train on the Morpeth North Curve, photo courtesy of S. Lewins.Bound for Craigy Railtour of 2017, the inspiration behind the Northumberland Coast Loop Campaign, photo by myself (R. Hogg)
Passenger Revival: Ashington to Newcastle
Article from 1974/75 discussing return of Ashington to Newcastle rail services, with MP for Morpeth George Grant and his wife pictured. Eric Heffer MP, was Minister for Industry when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister between March 1974 and April 1975.
In perhaps what is a case of ‘last closed, first reopened’, the Ashington – Newcastle stretch is due to reopen a little over 60 years after closure in November 1964 on Sunday 15th December 2024. This is a very welcome return of passenger services to the area, much anticipated by local residents and is likely to prove highly successful based on the evidence of other reopening schemes such as the Borders Railway, the Levenmouth Link etc.
The article above (original source unknown, image shared publically on a Facebook group) shows that as far back as 1974, the closure of Ashington – Newcastle for passengers was regretted, and sought to be reversed. Sadly it came to naught, but shows that the reopening has been proposed for around 50 years, and lends weight to an earlier reopening being plausible had more stations survived intact into the mid-70’s.
Newbiggin Extension
As stated at the very start of this post, the Newbiggin extension is already ‘on the radar’ and investments in Cambois by Blackstone for upto £10bn on datacentres could help finance this (as well as potentially seeing the Cambois Branch become a passenger route too?)
The Hepscott Line: Two potential use cases?
The Hepscott Line is perhaps the most interesting proposition; with a long-standing intention to use the line to extend Newcastle to Morpeth services onto Bedlington once that station is opened, with no additional stations required for it to work, but opening up the potential to reopen Choppington Station, which closed in April 1950 to passengers, and totally in March 1964, having seen some very occasional use for special trains.
With the Morpeth North Curve now in place since 1980, so itself celebrating 45 years of existence in 2025, there could be scope to use this route for the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop, allowing the Newcastle, Backworth and Morpeth route to perhaps become the Newcastle, Blyth and Berwick route?
Such a route could offer much better connections to major Northumberland towns like Blyth, even potentially for Cramlington; which whilst having its own station, is within easy reach of the Northumberland Line to the east, and suffers from a relatively poor service on the ECML, especially headed north.
The semi-fast (limited stop) N.C.L. service could allow traffic from Blyth, Cramlington, Bedlington, and Ashington, Woodhorn, and Newbiggin to be concentrated at a station such as Blyth Bebside which is within easy reach via rail, buses, cycling, and walking. Similarly, Northumberland Park, would serve North Tyneside well via T&W Metro interchange, local buses, alongside it’s good cycling and walking connections. The semi-fast option should be more comfortably be able to fit within the constraints of the ECML timetable.
An all stations service alongside a semi-fast service would offer even better ‘within Northumberland’ connectivity, but is likely to be more challenging given the capacity constraints on the ECML.
Similar to the proposal for the extended Morpeth services to Bedlington, the Northumberland Coast Loop would simply make use of the Hepscott Line to link existing and soon to exist stations, meaning it could be implemented just as quickly as Morpeth – Bedlington services given pathing on the ECML being made available.
While not shown on the above map, this route would further add to the case for Choppington Station, which would serve the rapidly growing areas of Choppington and Bedlington for housing.
As such, it is felt that this route could be delivered ahead of the Newbiggin extension, by simple virtue that the infrastructure is already in place to deliver it, it just needs the service.
Support for the Northumberland Coast Loop is building
The Northumberland Loop online petition was a success with 742 signatures, with email correspondence between myself and Cllr Glen Sanderson being very positive with regards to the route, and liaison with other organisations is ongoing.
Share for Success!
If you can share this post, or others onto your social media, or sending links to friends and family, you’ll help boost awareness of the route and hopefully see it brought into reality sooner!
Let’s hope that 2025 will see big progress on the route being implemented!
Sunday coming (the 15th December 2024) will see the long awaited reopening of the Northumberland Line to passenger trains.
Ashington, and Seaton Delaval are the first two of the newly built stations to open, with those at Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, and Northumberland Park due to open progressively during 2025.
A great result from years of campaigning by many bodies, but lets carry on campaining for the Northumberland Coast Loop and other extensions to the route, now that the core is finally being delivered!
Front cover of the FREE eBook covering the soon to open Northumberland Line, available from the NERA shop
The North Eastern Railway Association (NERA) has launched a free guidebook to coincide with the opening of the Northumberland Line later this month (15th December 2024).
It is an excellent small publication, being 20 pages in length, but it is packed full of key information and dates, well worth downloading (and printing off if you can) to take with you on a trip along the line once opened!
Early Railway Heavyweight
What the guidebook tells well is the strong early railway heritage of south east Northumberland, which while far from being the start of the story, being introduced to the area by Huntingdon Beaumont from Nottinghamshire in the early 1600’s (though this isn’t referenced in the guidebook*), rudimentary railways can trace roots back as far as the Diolkos in Ancient Greece, which operated for around 650 years starting in c.600 BC.
Bedlington, and the surrounding area has, however, played an important role in the development of the modern railway we’d more readily recognise today.
For example the Bedlington Ironworks went from a modest beginning producing nails in 1736 to the development by John Birkinshaw of the malleable iron rail, used successfully on the waggonway linking the ironworks to the Engine Pit near Choppington. This impressed the later famed George Stephenson, engineer of the Stockton and Darlington so much that he chose to use those rails for that railway, which celebrates it’s 200th anniversary in September 2025, being part of a nationwide ‘Railway200’.
Bedlington and Railway200
For this reason, I feel that Bedlington should be a key site for the Railway200 celebrations, and the Northumberland Coast Loop could form part of it for heritage railtours or cheduled trains taking in Bedlington en-route to Newcastle or Teesside for the Railway200 celebrations, with, fittingly the Hepscott Line reputedly using part of that 1819 waggonway route that saw the first use of the Birkinshaw rails.
With the Hepscott Line being an existing link between the East Coast Main Line at Morpeth and Bedlington on the soon to reopen for passengers Northumberland Line, this route surely makes abundant sense to open up in 2025 for at least some special trains, if not scheduled services, even if running non/few stops to showcase the area and bring greater awareness of it’s heritage. Weekend/Bank Holiday services alone would be a big advantage to the area and would hopefully attract some tourism benefits to the area.
Bedlington as an alternative East Coast route?
On page 15 of the above guidebook, it states that George Stephenson’s original 1839 plan was for Bedlington to be on his design for the East Coast Main Line, with Morpeth being served by a branch line. Thanks to the ‘Railway King’ George Hudson, later disgraced, and political pressure from the people of Morpeth, the line was quite literally bent to run through Morpeth, resulting in the Morpeth Curve (recently covered by the irreverent WTYP Podcast), which as resulted in four serious rail accidents due to the tightness of the curve.
Whilst the 1839 route would have been far superior to that existing today, the route via Morpeth, for the time being, remains the fastest route between Newcastle and Edinburgh, but the route via Bedlington, using the fairly newly built Morpeth North Curve, would allow a slower route, but would take in far bigger population centres; so any services running via this route (the Northumberland Coast Loop) would be likely to be immediately successful.
Conclusion
Given the historical importance of Bedlington and its close relationship with the Stockton and Darlington Railway right from the beginning in 1825, it should, in my view, play a key part in the Railway200 celebrations, and links from Morpeth, but also cities such as Edinburgh (a major tourism hotspot only approxiately 90mins from Bedlington by rail using the Hepscott Line) could be a major boost to raise awareness of this important historical site not just for the S&D, but also the major early locomotive building by R.B. Longridge at the site, with significant first loco’s for nations such as the Netherlands and Italy too.
The Northumberland Coast Loop would almost certainly have appeal as a tourist link to showcase and connect the Bedlington Ironworks site to the wider UK.
In the longer term, the Northumberland Coast Loop route would be sustainable rail link, connecting South East Northumberland and North Tyneside to North Northumberland and Scotland, a route not easily possible when the Hepscott Line lost its services in 1950, but radically different now with the Morpeth North Curve allowing direct access to the north.
*Huntingdon Beaumont is recorded on p. 19 of the December 2024 issue of The Railway Magazine, in an article by Bob Gwynne that ‘In 1609 he developed the first waggonwaysin the region at Bedlington, Bebside, and Cowpen.’
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?
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 