The Northumberland Coast Loop

Bedlington to Morpeth via Hepscott: The Northumberland Coast Loop ready and waiting passenger use?

Yesterday, the 8th June 2024, UK Railtours operated the ‘Blyth and Tyne Mini Tour’ from Newcastle to Bedlington Sidings and return; this gave an excellent opportunity to ride along the Hepscott Line for the first time and take some footage of this route.

Sitting in the facing direction from Bedlington gave the clearest view of the line, and starting at Bedlington Station, the video below shows most of the route (the exception being the Morpeth North Curve with no planned charters over it as far as is known), but it does show the junction away from the Morpeth – Bedlington line, and the clear opportunity this route could present for connectivity to, from, and within Northumberland and North Tyneside.

Northumberland Coast Loop: Bedlington to Morpeth via Hepscott

The Case for the N.C.L.

With a journey time of about 11mins between Bedlington and Morpeth, this would suggest that Bedlington to Pegswood could be achieved in approximately 15mins, and from there would operate at similar speeds to existing ECML services (either as limited stop ‘semi-fast’ services calling at specific stations or ‘local’ trains calling at most/all stations).

This would be a huge advantage over connecting via Newcastle, which from Bedlington via Northumberland Line service to Newcastle would take 30/31 mins, approx 10mins allowance for change of train and then approx 16 mins to be passing through Pegswood, a total of 57mins.

Using an example of Northumberland Park to Alnmouth (for Alnwick) by existing public transport shows clearly ‘going south to head north’, and the routes crossing over one another is shown.

A more direct rail route, via Hepscott would not only resolve the issue of going the wrong way during the trip, but could also shorten it by approximately 9 minutes to approximately just 46 minutes rather than the present 55 mins.

Bedlington to Pegswood direct would be approximately 40 minutes faster than going via Newcastle.

Typical ‘Northumberland Line’ timetable (1.7.24), showing 30min journey time from Bedlington to Newcastle.

Typical ECML service (2 of 2) showing approx 16min journey time between Newcastle and Pegswood.

This would give the following approximate timings:

To/From Pegswood via Bedlington (local service & semi-fast* (Blyth Bebside & Northumberland Park only):

Bedlington – c.15mins (From Pegswood *estimated*)

*Blyth Bebside – c.18mins (3mins from Bedlington)

Newsham – c.22mins (7mins from Bedlington)

Seaton Delaval – c.27mins (12mins from Bedlington)

*Northumberland Park – c.32mins (17mins from Bedlington)

Newcastle Central – c.45mins (30mins from Bedlington)

–

To/From Alnmouth (for Alnwick) (Semi-fast timings only)

Blyth Bebside – c.32mins

Northumberland Park – c.46mins

Newcastle Central (via Bedlington) – c.59mins

–

To/From Berwick Upon Tweed

Blyth Bebside – c.52mins

Northumberland Park – c.66mins

Newcastle Central (via Bedlington) – c.79mins

The above timings are quite competitive to car journey times when compared on a station to station comparison, and are far faster than many existing public transport options.

Public transport timings between Northumberland Park and Alnwick Bus Station on Monday 10th June 2024 leaving after 09:00.

As can be seen from above image of public transport connections from Northumberland Park to Alnwick Bus Station, offering a direct rail service between N’land Park and Alnmouth could make journeys both more convenient travel (fewer changes), alongside the reduction of journey times (both in more direct routing, and not having changeover time at Newcastle Central).

Northumberland Park to Edinburgh Waverley on Monday 10th June 2024 leaving at 09:00

Assuming that long distance, semi-fast trains via the Northumberland Coast Loop would go on to form a longer Newcastle to Edinburgh (via Bedlington) diagram, there could still be an advantage from Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park, with shorter overall journey times and avoiding changing from T&W Metro to mainline rail at Central Station; instead using a smaller station, which may be more convenient and easier for those with luggage/young children etc (encumbered travellers) to connect to services.

If you agree with the above, please show your support via the petition: Northumberland Coast Loop Petition.

N.C.L. Update 6.6.24

Thank you to all who’ve supported the campaign, and a few quick updates thus far!

Petition: Growing fast and just 30 signatures away from its next major milestone, please take a look here at the Northumberland Coast Loop Petition.

Website: Good level of traffic, with nearly 2,500 visitors since launch at the start of the year.

Social Media: Facebook page is growing well with 268 likes and 440 followers as of today. Twitter (aka ‘X’) has 84 followers so far.

June Meet-up: The ‘Natter at Newcastle on 8th June 2024’ will hopefully offer an opportunity for supporters to meet face to face with myself and look forwards to doing more in coming months.

General Election 2024: Given the rules about campaigning ahead of an election, reaching out to politicians will be postponed until after the general election on 4th July and the MP’s either new or re-elected will be contacted after that date, alongside local councillors along the line of route and the new North East Mayor Kim McGuinness too.

Thanks as ever for your support and please share this post as well as any of our social media posts.

Top 10 Nations viewing the Northumberland Coast Loop website

A little side interest as the campaign for the Northumberland Coast Loop continues is the website statistics, provided by WordPress, which can show a breakdown by nation.

Unsurprisingly as a UK campaign this shows at the top, with the vast majority of all visits, but the following nine nations were a little more unexpected!

In 2nd and 3rd places respectively is the USA and Ireland, as English speaking nations, alongside Canada (5th), and Austrailia (9th). This might be expats from the region living abroad but it would be interesting to know (please contact via the socials) or as a comment below.

Sweden, Germany, Spain, Norway and Turkey in 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th places respectively is obviously welcomed but very unexpected! It would be great to hear from anyone from these nations what the interest is in the campaign!

Natter at Newcastle Central – 8th June 2024

On Saturday 8th June, if you’re interested in joining an informal discussion over a tea/coffee at Newcastle Central Station between 11:30 and 12:00 about the Northumberland Coast Loop, please drop an email to northumberlandloop@gmail.com

Thanks and hope to see you there! RH

Latest info: https://www.facebook.com/share/P1XeAQrCez3ihihk/

Green Signals Episode 34: Hitachi Battery Class 802 an ideal fit for the Northumberland Coast Loop?

The latest Green Signals episode featuring Nigel Harris, and Richard Bowker CBE, featured a section on the battery fitting trial of Hitachi 802 Class EMU’s at Newton Aycliffe for Transpennine Express (TPE).

As stated in the interview segment between Jim from Hitachi and Richard from Green Signals, the units are potentially ideally suited to routes that are part electrified and part unwired.

The Northumberland Coast Loop is very much a route of that type, being mostly wired between Newcastle and Berwick (and on to Edinburgh), but unwired, for the time being, between Morpeth North Junction (near Bothal Viaduct) and Benton Junction (Newcastle).

This unwired route of approximately 16miles length would allow places such as the Blyth Valley area (Blyth, Cramlington and Bedlington) and North Tyneside to get long distance, direct rail services, bringing the trains closer to the major population centres and centrally located stations (i.e. Blyth Bebside compared to Morpeth or Cramlington) and Northumberland Park to serve North Tyneside via easy interchange with T&W Metro.

Northumberland Park potentially could also offer an ideal interchange to serve both the Port of Tyne (DFDS Ferries and PoT Cruise Terminals), but also Newcastle Airport, if direct T&W Metro services from Tynemouth to Airport could become reality. This could be achieved either by using a route around/through the Metro depot, or if this is not possible, by maybe using the turnback siding just beyond South Gosforth station (near South Gosforth First School)?

With being such a short unwired section, ‘range anxiety’ should be a minimal issue, especially if charging from overhead wires on other sections is possible, and using this route for dedicated, timetabled trains is arguably good for the local economy by offering better links to nationally important sites such as the Ports of Tyne & Blyth, but from a railway operating perspective, using it regularly should also help maintain driver knowledge in the event of the route being needed for diversions, the 2023 issues with Plessey Viaduct perhaps being a sharp reminder of this routes potential importance in that regard.

As ever, if you would like to SUPPORT the petition, please CLICK HERE.

Please also take a look at the Green Signal’s webpage for this podcast: https://www.greensignals.org/podcast/hitachis-battery-class-802-general-election-2024-virgin-trains-comeback/

A1 Dualling Alternative: The Northumberland Coast Loop

The SPACE for Gosforth group have, in recent articles such as this Environmental campaigners demand more answers on plans to dual A1 in Northumberland highlighted the numerous issues of dualling the A1 with regards to adding to road traffic, alongside the environmental costs of adding more greenhouse gas emissions at a time when targets for Net Zero have been set in the very near future.

In the article above, the Northumberland Line reopening is cited as ‘providing a reliable rail link between south east Northumberland and Newcastle’, of which ‘the greatest benefit of this is significant alleviation of car traffic into central Newcastle along key arterial roads, like the A189 [Spine Road]’

That surely means that upgrading capacity and improving rail services on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) would have a similar effect on moving traffic away from roads and onto rail, especially if some funds were granted to schemes such as the Aln Valley Railway, which would reconnect popular tourist towns such as Alnwick (home to Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden & Lilidorei, amongst many more) to the national network for similar money to dualling the A1, whilst being far greener?

With a £290m costing in 2014, the dualling would, in 2024 prices cost around £400m today, but should we as a nation spend such an amount of money on a scheme which worsens meeting Net Zero and drives up road traffic with negative consequences for road safety, or should it instead be invested in green transport that is far safer intrinsically?

The Northumberland Coast Loop would be a smaller, but still important part in the connectivity of the area, as would provide a second ‘reliable rail link’ between south east Northumberland, North Tyneside, and North Northumberland, with the potential for onward connections into Scotland.

This would use the existing line between Bedlington and Morpeth that passes through Choppington and Hepscott, and would allow direct travel towards Pegswood station using the Morpeth North Curve, that was opened as recently as April 1980 and aside from rare diversions and railtours, has rarely been used by passenger trains (last was potentially in 2017 with the ‘Bound for Craigy’ railtour using HST’s), but perhaps consitutes an overlooked piece of infrastructure that could play an important role in improving rail connections to, from and within Northumberland, which could very much be a ‘spine’ and interconnected with local buses for places not immediately next to railway stations.

Bound for Craigy Railtour in 2017 along Barrington Road, Bedlington.

As the issues in 2023 with Plessey Viaduct also showed, where the line was closed totally for a short period, and ran as a section of single line while repairs were undertaken; this route could be an important diversionary route, but to maintain driver knowledge, running regular services along the route could help keep train drivers and other crew familiar with the line alongside providing a service to the communities along it’s path.

If you support this idea, please take a look (and hopefully sign) the Northumberland Coast Loop petition.

Thanks, RH.

CRAG Campaign 4.5.24

The Chathill Rail Action Group (CRAG) is again campaigning for increased services to Chathill Station which is on the ECML between Berwick Upon Tweed, and Alnmouth (for Alnwick) stations.

The recent Northumberland Gazette article Campaign gathers pace in bid to get more trains to call at Chathill Station discusses the campaign to date, with hopes of connections of 40 minutes to Newcastle and 55 minutes to Edinburgh. This is also with broad backing; with Northumberland County Council, Transpennine Express, Berwick-Upon-Tweed MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan and local Councillor Guy Renner-Thompson all supporting the campaign.

As a station on the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.), this uplift in service at Chathill would also be welcomed by this campaign too, which while services presumably running 100% on the East Coast Main Line, the longer term intention of the N.C.L. campaign would be to provide even more regional connectivity by linking stations such as Chathill directly to SE Northumberland towns such as Blyth, and into North Tyneside by using the existing link line between Pegswood and Bedlington, then on to Newcastle – slightly more indirect but serving a lot of people along the way.

In the case of Chathill particularly, it would offer a nearby rail connection to the Port of Tyne Cruise Terminal and international Ferry terminals for those visiting attractions such as Bamburgh Castle, the Farne Islands and more, as well as connecting the large towns of SE Northumberland directly for the popular ‘day out’ leisure travel, and for seasonal workers to access tourism related jobs.

Let’s hope that Chathill can achieve its long-awaited service improvement!

N.C.L. 28th April 2024 – Alnwick and Cornhill Line reopening and A1 Dualling Debate

Disused Alnwick and Cornhill Line becoming the Borderline Greenway

The first steps on reopening the Alnwick and Cornhill Railway as a greenway for walkers and cyclists has started in recent days, with trackbed clearance at the Alnwick end of the line beginning earlier this month. The route is being restyled as the ‘Borderline Greenway‘, and envisions the full route forming a 100mile loop from Alnwick northwards to Cornhill, across to Berwick, then back down to Alnmouth (sharing NCN Route 1) and back to Alnwick.

The northern section of the Northumberland Coast Loop between Alnmouth and Berwick could serve sections of this loop, and allow for public transport access for those using it.

Please click the link below to view the BBC article on the scheme:

Work begins to reopen railway line after 71 years

Northumberland Coast Loop rather than A1 Dualling?

Also in recent news has been the A1 north of Morpeth, with Environmental campaigners demand more answers on plans to dual A1 in Northumberland, with questions being asked by the environmental group about road safety, as well as meeting Net-Zero targets set for both the county of Northumberland as well as wider UK. The impact of the Northumberland Line was also raised in the above article, with Coun Sanderson ‘…added that the Northumberland Line project would help to take cars off the road by providing a reliable rail link between south east Northumberland and Newcastle.‘

The Northumberland Coast Loop could be a way to introduce a further ‘reliable rail link’ between south east Northumberland, north Northumberland and Scotland, and taking cars off the road on these trips too, building upon the investment in the Northumberland Line by utilising the existing line linking the lines between Pegswood and Bedlington.

Using this existing rail connection could reduce existing car traffic on the A1, and absorb future growth of traffic, and rail travel is a far safer mode of transport than driving so would also reduce accidents and injuries resulting from them.

Better public transport can deliver the economic growth, tackle inequality and cut emissions.

N.C.L. Petition Update 26th April 2024

The petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop has just hit 400 signatures!

Thank you to everyone who has signed already and please keep sharing with friends and family, link is below:

https://www.change.org/p/create-the-northumberland-loop-rail-services-from-berwick-to-newcastle-via-blyth?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1uoPI1NFGhjVZU4v8jLiU0N9fK4pMFI1SADFtmvsgBeqrJM-3af6CXsuE_aem_AZnn9kv1tAy4RY8PSQyr81W-QCJgIH7nyKFrHsg0ke_k3uPdHPS8DgCOlozyOk95uAJ9DsehfcE2Hh2Jadry0OFN

Thanks, RH.

The Background to the N.C.L. Colour Scheme – ‘A Bright Future Ahead’

The N.C.L. orange background to maps and other ‘branding’ is a nod to the British Railways’ North Eastern Region ‘Tangerine/Deep Orange’ (Page 9, Teasdale J.D. (2009) A History of British Railways’ North Eastern Region, NERA) and which can be seen on signage on stations such as Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR), which is set in the early days of British Railways.

The cover of the NERA (North Eastern Railway Association) ‘*A History of British Railways’ North Eastern Region*‘ edited by J.G. Teasdale (2009), showing a ‘Tangerine’ Totem at the top with the BR (NE) Region ‘Deep Orange’.

The North Eastern Region came into existence on the 1st January 1948, and lasted until 1st January 1967 where it was abolished.

The lighter shade of orange adopted by this campaign is to differentiate it from the former colour while still alluding to it, and is also a tongue in cheek reference to a now defunct mobile phone company and their famous advertising slogan.

This refers to the potentially bright future ahead of this route; one which could make totally new connections for passenger services that are only possible with the Northumberland Line stations being reopened, but also the 1980 addition of the Morpeth North Curve to the rail network allowing direct access to/from North Northumberland for services rather than reversal in Morpeth Station.