This article from The Guardian seems to infer a reference to the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop while talking about the soon to open Northumberland Line, could we see it in 2025 with just a modest further investment?
Headline and introduction to the article by The Guardian
‘North of Blyth, the line forks with one branch heading west to Morpeth’ is a great recognition of the Hepscott Line and its connectivity back onto the East Coast Main Line (ECML).
Articles such as this almost immediately sell the case for the Northumberland Line to be extended towards Morpeth and destinations north by using this existing route, but it is important to note that the Northumberland Coast Loop route wouldn’t offer a direct connection into Morpeth station itself.
This is due to the line having a second fork at Hepscott if coming from Blyth, with the left hand route going to Morpeth station and then back to Newcastle, while the right hand route would skirt the north eastern edge of Coopies Lane industrial estate and join the ECML facing Pegswood and Berwick Upon Tweed (see image below).
Rail Map Online image of the current rail network in South East Northumberland
To give access to Morpeth for places like Morpeth Chantry, the proposal would see services stop at Pegswood, a station positioned between Morpeth and Ashington, which would allow access to places like Morpeth Chantry or Woodhorn Museum for services taking a Newcastle to Berwick via Blyth route, which would offer a ‘coastal route’ for trains using the existing infrastructure mentioned in the above article.
Route diagram showing the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop.
In correspondence with Councillor H.G.H. Sanderson, Leader of Northumberland County Council, and the office of Kim McGuinness, North East Mayor, this proposed route has recieved a warm welcome, the track and stations either already exist or are well underway, so could we see this route in time for Railway200, even if just a few trains per day?
It might require some additional work beyond that undertaken for the Northumberland Line, but given the opportunities, could it be a quick win?
On the 6th October, the Northumberland Coast Loop petition came to a close with the support of 742 people, thank you to all who signed it!
Following the closure of the petition, I reached out to Councillor H.G.H. Sanderson, present leader of Northumberland County Council by email. I recieved a postive response that the proposal aligns with future expansion of the Northumberland Line, and that it also aligns with projects in the North East Combined Authority (NECA) transport plans; though it doesn’t seem to mention in detail what expansions of the Northumberland Line are proposed. Hopefully this can become a definitive project in coming months/years alongside other expansions such as Newbiggin-by-the-Sea etc.
I have also been in contact with my MP, Mr David Smith of the North Northumberland seat, and discussion is ongoing there too.
A third approach was made to Jason Wade of Northern Trains at the recent Railfuture North East Branch meeting on Wednesday 16th October 2024, questions being put forward by a fellow committee member as I couldn’t attend in person that evening.
Feedback from my colleague was that the route is ‘unlikely as it misses Morpeth and Cramlington’. This might be attributed to being ‘risk averse’ with regards rail services, which I’ll explore below to offer my contention that such a route deserves a trial at the least given that the expensive element of the infrastructure is in place.
The risk of not serving Morpeth and Cramlington is understandable as both are a known and established market for passengers. The stations have never been closed, although the whole ECML itself North of Newcastle was threatened in the 1970’s and into the 1980’s with likes of the Serpell Report of 1982 proposing closures of many mainlines. Fortunately these proposed closures never happened, and the ECML has survived and thrived in years since.
In contrast, the ‘new’ stations Northumberland Line (many are on/near former stations but are essentially new) haven’t had a regular passenger service since 1964, when these stations closed, with most being entirely demolished, and the direct route from Newcastle to Pegswood via Bedlington only became possible in 1980 with the completion of the Morpeth North Curve, previously any diversions via Bedlington having to reverse at Morpeth Station.
I have previously postulated the effect of building the Morpeth North Curve as intended in 1882, and the effect that might have had on the survival of the stations. In reality though, the curve came too late to potentially have saved the stations; but with them reopening, the opportunity now exists to see a new service instituted, which as stated in many previous posts would be a massive boost to Northumberland’s connectivity as a whole.
Two routes along the Northumberland Coast?
X15 and X18 buses to Newcastle via Morpeth together at Alnwick Bus Station, 19th October 2024
A good example of fast vs slow routes complementing one another is perhaps exemplified by the X15 and X18 buses, seen this morning side by side at Alnwick Bus Station, the X15 is the ‘fast’ bus comparatively, reaching Morpeth in 50mins from Alnwick, whereas the slow X18 takes 74min for the same trip.
X15 trip to Morpeth, Saturday 19th October 2024X18 trip to Morpeth, again on Saturday 19th October 2024
Naturally if you’re target destination is Morpeth, you’d catch the X15 for the shortest journey time, either having more time in that town itself, or being able to depart later/arrive home earlier, all else being equal; but the X15 serves fewer places (33 stops compared to 54 on the X18), while the X15 does connect smaller places such as Shilbottle, Felton and more, the slower X18 provides a through connection for the larger settlement of Amble, links to Alnmouth Station for Alnwick, Amble, and other settlements nearer the coast. It might be slower but is arguably the service that provides more connections for more people.
The Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.) route proposal is very similar to the X18 concept of serving the population centres directly over end to end speed, from Berwick Upon Tweed to Newcastle Upon Tyne, the railway route via Morpeth and Cramlington is undoubtedly the faster one, but it calls at smaller settlements (Morpeth is 5th largest town in Northumberland, Cramlington 2nd)
The N.C.L. route would directly serve Bedlington (4th largest), and Blyth (largest town), while also indirectly still serving the town of Morpeth (and Ashington as the 3rd largest town) by using Pegswood Station, sited superbly between both of these settlements, and especially for Morpeth potentially more easily accessible than Morpeth Station itself. Cramlington (the town overall) would still be served quite well by using Blyth Bebside, Newsham, and Seaton Delaval stations.
In short, this route would complement the existing services on the ECML, not replace them.
The Hepscott Line, The Butterwell Line, or both?
There are two campaigns for this area of Northumberland that I feel need to be viewed side by side. Essentially, between Berwick and Widdrington, and between Bedlington and Newcastle, both routes would be identical, the middle section between Bedlington and Widdrington being the variable option, one an existing and open route, the other partially disused and requiring new sections of line to be built.
In both cases, it is important to note that neither route would go via Cramlington or Morpeth stations, and in the case of the Butterwell route, services would be further from Morpeth by also avoiding Pegswood.
The Northumberland Coast Loop would use the Hepscott Line, which is the existing and regularly used link between Bedlington, Morpeth, and Pegswood, passing through the village of Hepscott just to the south east of Morpeth itself, giving the line it’s name.
The N.C.L. proposal is for a Newcastle to Berwick via Bedlington passenger service to take the Hepscott Line to rejoin the East Coast Main Line at Morpeth North Junction (near to Pegswood Railway Viaduct). This route is regularly used by the North Blyth to Fort William Alumina trains, which change direction at Bedlington Sidings coming to/from North Blyth. This would therefore simply be using infrastructure that already exists to provide a new passenger service.
The ‘Butterwell Line‘, being advocated for by SENRUG is the name given to the collection of disused colliery lines north of Ashington, part of which ran though Butterwell Disposal Point. It has never formed a direct route north, as only formed a through route from Pegswood to Ashington for coal trains, any connection northward would need a new curve constructed near to the River Lyne, and this line is now totally disused, with the section just north of Ashington to New Moor being disused since c1999-2004 (some contradictory sources for last train over the section). This route would mean a significant investment of perhaps £50m to £100m (or indeed more) required to rebuild two junctions (that at Ashington and a new one to connect onto the ECML), as well as to bring a now long disused freight line to full passenger standards.
While this would be a useful route, and would offer Ashington a direct connection north, it would require a very substantial investment into the route to make a reality, whereas running trains via the Hepscott Line could arguably be trialled using the existing infrastructure at a fairly minimal cost to see if usage of the route would justify furtger investments in capacity.
This could be likened to the Amazon approach of one-way and two-way doors, an extract from the AWS page being below
‘Another tool we use at Amazon to assist in making high-quality, high velocity decisions is a mental model we call one-way and two-way doors. A one-way door decision is one that has significant and often irrevocable consequences—building a fulfillment or data center is an example of a decision that requires a lot of capital expenditure, planning, resources, and thus requires deep and careful analysis. A two-way door decision, on the other hand, is one that has limited and reversible consequences: A/B testing a feature on a site detail page or a mobile app is a basic but elegant example of a reversible decision.’
The two-way door option is using the Northumberland Coast Loop route via the Hepscott Line; it might work or it might not, but it wouldn’t take much to try it out. A low risk for potentially high reward.
The Butterwell Line would be very much a one-way door; it would be a big investment and one that couldn’t easily be backed out from once built.
If the Northumberland Coast Loop route proved itself a big success, that could open the door (pardon the pun) for the Butterwell Line, with an established market being created via Hepscott, changing the route to via Ashington if desirable could show the business case for that investment.
Let’s take a chance at trialling the N.C.L., and see what comes back? What’s to lose?
In a recent Northumberland Gazette article, David Smith MP for North Northumberland pressed for dualling the A1 yet again, but there is a clear argument that this is a poor investment for the future on a number of fronts; why not instead put the investment into the proven alternative of the ECML, and possibly also into the Northumberland Coast Loop, the latter being a northern connection between the Northumberland Line and the ECML headed north through Pegswood.
Can’t ignore A1 emissions.
As Space4Gosforth has also fairly recently commented in the Northumberland Gazette (April 2024), dualling would be ‘environmentally ruinous’ with 1.44m tonnes of CO2 attached to the scheme. These emissions contribute to ongoing worsening of climate change, the effect of which can be clearly seen in recent events such as a month’s worth of rainfall in Blyth just a few days ago, alongside the Hurricanes Helene and Milton that have hammered the USA with almost unprecedented effects.
So from a climate change mitigation and Net Zero standpoint, dualling of the A1 makes zero sense to carry out, as it simply worsens the issues of climate change.
To cut emissions, making better use of the parallel, fully electrified ECML surely makes the most sense? Moving people and goods by electric trains rather than petrol and diesel cars (which still make up the majority of road vehicles).
This will require an uprating of the electrical supply to the ECML, to allow longer, and heavier trains, as well as swapping some diesel trains for electric ones, especially to provide an improved local service, but many trains, such as Class 156/158’s are near end of life anyway and due replacement.
Better solutions to road safetyfor the A1 and other routes.
The article above by Space4Gosforth also sets out clearly that simpler, more effective, cheaper and more rapidly deployable safety measures could be applied to the A1 to make it safer, reducing speed limits on particularly accident-prone stretches, coupled with average speed cameras have proven highly effective on many other routes to reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities. Read more here from Space4Gosforth.
There is also the benefits of modal shift, as travel by active travel and public transport is far safer than travelling within a car, either by bus or by rail. Reducing road traffic via modal shift to more sustainable modes will improve ALL roads, so the investment into routes such as the ECML will have benefits far beyond just the railway itself.
Again, rail investment as part of improving public transport makes far more sense as a road safety measure than dualling the A1, as the road scheme is only likely to increase traffic both on the A1 itself, as well as other routes, leading to more accidents and more fatalities.
Flawed economic case for dualling the A1 and rail is a better economic investment.
In the article from David Smith MP, he quotes a highly outdated figure of £290m for dualling; thiswas the price in 2014, a decade of inflation now puts the price at £390m or more.
Moreover, the ‘big picture’ costs linked to dualling, such as effects of increased emissions, could amount to as much as -£1.2bn of economic damage.
By comparison, even though the Northumberland Line scheme has suffered a serious cost overrun of around £100m, it’s BCR figure is expected at 1.6, meaning that for every £1 spent, there is a gain of £1.60 to the economy.
Furthermore, groups such as the East Coast Mainline Authorities who spearhead the ‘Invest East Coast’ campaign state that for every £1 spent on the ECML, a return of upto £2.73 can be expected.
Linking the ECML and Northumberland Line together via the Northumberland Coast Loop route could drive up the economic gains of both lines, and help drive the wider economy of the North East, of which North Northumberland is an important part.
Political mandate is also lacking?
There is also the question to which David Smith has the political backing to dual the A1 too; when campaigning before the General Election back in July this year, his commitment to dualling the A1 was conspicuous by its absence in many respects, while it was placed front and centre by the incumbent Berwick Upon Tweed Conservative MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who lost in that election.
Indeed in his maiden speech, he made more than one reference to railways, while not a single mention was made about the A1.
Summary
In conclusion, I’m calling for David Smith MP to change his stance from pushing for the dualling of the A1 to instead campaigning for the improvement of the ECML; which has a much more assured climate compatability by not generating emissions on the scale of dualling the A1, is far safer as a mode of transport and can help drive wider modal shift, as well as the obvious economic advantages.
This recent article from North East Bylines, a ‘Whistle-stop tour of the Stockton and Darlington‘ shows quite clearly how much of the S&D survives as a passenger carrying route, particularly the section from Shildon in the west to Eaglescliffe and towards Middlesbrough.
Screen shot of the North East Bylines Article with map showing surviving/disused parts of the Stockton and Darlington Railway
While the obvious focus of the Stockton and Darlington Railway’s 200th anniversary will be around the railway itself in the Teesside area, there is a broader opportunity to tell the story of the 200 years of railway history that precedes the S&D.
Worldwide attention will be given to this line as it is broadly viewed to be the birth of the modern railway, and was pivotal into the development of the modern industrial nations of the United Kingdom, USA, European nations such as France, Germany, Italy and many more worldwide, with UK technology often at the forefront.
Industrial heritage is also much more widely appreciated now, with the success of major venues like Beamish Museum, itself home to an 1820’s waggonway in a recreated landscape of the time is likely play a major role in Railway200, but lets also showcase the real places, let’s ‘Walk the ground’ as said by Al Murray and James Holland say on their ‘We have ways of making you talk’ podcast. Venture into the Blyth Valley, tranquil now but once an important industrial site, home to Bedlington Ironworks, step into Stephenson’s Cottage in Wylam where young George was born, walk across the Causey Arch and take a ride on the Tanfield Railway.
Let’s show the world the railways are an important part of Britain’s heritage, and that we can use them today to great effect.
Beginnings with Beaumont
The start of waggonways in the North East starts around Bedlington in c.1600, when Huntingdon Beaumont introduced the technology from his native Nottinghamshire, illustrating a development dating back thousands of years, not just 200.
Though it wasn’t hugely successful for Beaumont himself (who sadly died as a debtor in 1624), the techology was widely adopted across the North East. One hundred years after Beaumont’s death, the Tanfield Waggonway was completed in 1725 (therefore celebrating it’s own tercentenary in 2025), a full hundred years before the Stockton and Darlington.
Trevithick Genius to Tyneside
It was the Cornishman Richard Trevithick who first developed a viable steam locomotive in 1804, it showing its stuff on the 21st February on Merthyr Tramroad in Penydarren, but was not a total success due to broken rails, and reverted back to being horse drawn after the experiment.
Later in 1804, Christopher Blackett of Wylam Colliery requested Trevithick to send John Whitfield of Gateshead some drawings, a locomotive was built and demonstrated but again was limited by the track technology of the era. This locomotive is said to have started the development of Tyneside locomotives and the engineers who built them.
Waggonways, Wylam and Wrought Iron Wizardry
It was into this rich waggonway world around his birthplace of Wylam that George Stephenson, was born into, being in his early 20’s at the time of Trevithicks early experiments, and in an area full of waggonways and associated collieries, it was a superb situation for Stephenson to develop his locomotives.
Stephenson’s first locomotive, ‘The Blucher’, was built in 1814 for Killingworth Colliery, and was reputedly the first locomotive to run on flanged wheels and iron rails, 11 years before Locomotion on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
It is important to remember that George was one of many developing locomotives and wider railways at the time, but the focus with the S&D means that he is the main focus here.
Bedlington is back again with the Birkinshaw Rail 200 years later!
The track technology could be said to have finally caught up with locomotives by 1820, when John Birkinshaw of Bedlington Ironworks developed a malleable iron rail with a wedge shape, allowing for locomotives to work without breaking the track.
The first section of line laid with this new rail is reputed to be to Barrington Colliery to the north of Bedlington towards the River Blyth, parts of which might still be in railway use today as the Hepscott Line between Bedlington and Morpeth, which the image below shows the ‘Bound for Craigy’ railtour using back in 2017.
It could be contended therefore that any reasonable celebration of the 200th anniversary of S&DR should also include Bedlington, and the valley of the River Blyth as both the starting place for waggonway technology, as well as the later development of the Birkinshaw rail used extensively on the S&D itself, and could certainly be linked to Wylam, Killingworth and more too.
Railtours to Revive the Revolution of Railways in Britain
One fitting way to achieve this could be to use the rail network itself to showcase these sites holistically, and showing the up to date development of railways, especially pertinent given the reopening of the Northumberland Line in late 2024.
Special trains would be a fairly inexpensive but effective way to showcase railways as not just an invention of the past consigned to history, but as an effective way of cleanly and efficiently moving people and goods today.
Especially with a modern unit, and if given a dedicated route (as suggested below) the train could be branded with a Railway200 livery, and would act as a travelling advert for a railway revival with the forthcoming Great British Railways and hopefully a new golden era of rail travel.
Use the railway to showcase it’s own history.
Rolling stock
Whilst heritage rolling stock would certainly be welcome on some workings (especially steam/heritage diesel), it is envisaged that most workings would simply be a modern train, which could allow for easily running at upto 125mph on fast sections of the mainline, whereas heritage stock is typically restricted to lower speed limits.
The Route(s)
Given that these sites are only a short distance from the East Coast Main Line (ECML), special trains/railtours could easily run from the major cities along the route, Newcastle would be an obvious candidate, but also Edinburgh, York, and London could all justify special trains.
Edinburghto Bishop Auckland via Bedlington and Eaglescliffe?
The train would simply travel down the ECML as far as Pegswood, then take the Morpeth North Curve, giving direct access towards Bedlington, and then taking the Northumberland Line route via Seaton Delaval towards Newcastle Central Station.
This would offer at least a ‘run-past’ of the Bedlington Ironworks site in the Blyth Valley between Bedlington and Blyth Bebside stations, if one or both were open, and a sufficient service provided it may allow for visitors to step off and visit the valley themselves, bringing some industrial tourism potential to Bedlington and Blyth. Similarly, there could be opportunities to visitors to also visit Dial Cottage, within easy reach of Northumberland Park station by existing bus services.
From Newcastle, these special trains could then make their way to Eaglescliffe, either via the ECML & the Stillington Line or via the Durham Coast route. From there, they could take the route via Dinsdale to Shildon, and thus traversing the major part of the S&DR by train, as well as viewing the valley where most of the rail from the railway was produced and where its design was developed.
A similar return route would offer a better view of the Blyth Valley from Bedlington Viaduct as it was on the upstream side of the bridge, but little evidence remains of the ironworks itself.
This is using the Northumberland Coast Loop route as envisaged, and shows the potential ease of this being implemented as a regular rail route, which could be important in the decades to come, with 200th anniversaries of important locomotives built at Bedlington coming up in the next couple of decades, but a regular service could allow the industrial tourism business to develop in and around Bedlington and Blyth.
Newcastle to Bishop Auckland via Bedlington and Eaglescliffe.
A probably more likely option is a ‘shuttle’ type service beginning/ending at Newcastle and Bishop Auckland and allowing interchange at several stations en-route.
From Newcastle, this route would run to Morpeth, then take the Hepscott Line towards Bedlington over Coopies Lane (recently intensively used for the Lynemouth Biomass services), and would again pass through/call at Bedlington/Blyth Bebside and return to Newcastle Central, before completing its journey towards Shildon/Bishop Auckland via Eaglescliffe.
A similar return journey would again offer a regular service.
Carlisle to Bishop Auckland via Bedlington and Eaglescliffe
A start from Carlisle could allow for a visit/pass by of George Stephenson’s birthplace at Wylam, and upon arrival, would simply follow the above Newcastle to Bishop Auckland via Bedlington and Eaglescliffe route.
This route would have the benefit of easily connecting people along the West Coast Main Line into the S&D special services.
York, London and more
Like the above service from Carlisle, special trains arriving from elsewhere in the UK would likely arrive at Newcastle, before taking the above Newcastle to Bishop Auckland via Bedlington and Eaglescliffe route.
Lets make Railway200 an opportunity to showcase the pivotal place the North East played in the development of railways from Beaumont, to Tanfield, to Killingworth, and the Stockton and Darlington, through to today with the reopening of the Northumberland Line to passengers.
The Northumberland Coast Loop petition is now finished as of this morning, Sunday 6th October 2024 and has gained the support of 742 persons in the last 12 months.
This route, using the existing freight-only railway between Bedlington and Morpeth/Pegswood could offer direct northward connections from South East Northumberland, and North Tyneside to North Northumberland and Scotland (Edinburgh).
Such a link could bolster the opportunities for places in this area by providing much more direct connections to economically thriving areas such as the Scottish Central Belt, and recognising that areas such as the Blyth Estuary are nationally important by giving them national connectivity.
Sites such as Cambois, whilst not directly on the route, are hopefully going to become home to very serious big investments, such as the £10bn Blackrock investment into a datacentre campus, with work beginning in 2025, alongside many other established firms in Blyth such as Dräger, or Cobalt Park, all of these being sites near to Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park stations, which would see these long distance services connecting to.
This route doesn’t require any additional stations to be built for it to work, simply using those already existing, or currently under construction as part of the Northumberland Line project, itself being completed in less than a years’ time (final stations due for completion in 2025).
That being said, services along the Hepscott Line would support a new station at Choppington, an area seeing a great deal of new housing development with sites such as Longridge Farm in Bedlington and Willow Farm at Choppington, as well as a large, established population in Bedlington, Guide Post and Stakeford who’d be more easily connected via a new station on this route.
This route also ties in extremely well to the heritage of the railways, with the Blyth Valley being where Huntingdon Beaumont introduced the waggonway to the North East 200 years before the Stockton and Darlington, starting a chain of developments that led directly to the development of early railways by George Stephenson and many others; for example John Birkinshaw who developed the malleable iron rail in 1820 in Bedlington Ironworks, which was used for two thirds of the Stockton and Darlington’s track.
This route would make enormous sense to showcase as part of the Railway200 celebrations in 2025, as it would show Britain as the technological leader of the past, with the development of early railways in this region, but also heading the Green Revolution with the renewable energh sector centred around the Blyth Estuary and rail investment in modern railways to drive modal shift to greener and cleaner modes of transport.
Today, the 5th October 2024, is the closing date for the Northumberland Coast Loop petition, which will be closed at midnight.
It has received fantastic support so far, and thank you to all who’ve signed up!
The proposed route would see the Northumberland Line at Bedlington, connected via the Hepscott Line to Pegswood and allow direct connections between South East Northumberland (Bedlington, Blyth etc) to North Northumberland (Alnmouth (for Alnwick, Berwick) and Scotland (Dunbar, Edinburgh etc).
Screenshot of the ITV article on Plessey Viaduct problems.
A lot of talk at the time in local railway Facebook groups suggested the alternative and established diversionary route via Blyth could be used, should the viaduct be completely closed to traffic, or for some workings, though this was complicated by the ongoing Northumberland Line works at the time.
The Northumberland Coast Loop petition slightly predates this event occuring, being launched on the 5th October 2023, just days before the viaduct as Plessey suffered from a parapet issue, but highlights the potential usefulness of this route for diversionary purposes.
In the event, the viaduct remained partially open, albeit with quite significant disruption to services, and only a few trains were diverted over the former Blyth and Tyne route (now the Northumberland Line); the most notable example perhaps being the Flying Scotsman (the loco) being sent light engine plus support coaches on 11th October 2023.
Screenshot from the Aln, Blyth and Tyne Railway Group of Flying Scotsman on its detour, 11th October 2023 (original film by K. Tait)
Moving forward to today, the Northumberland Line is now steadily heading towards completion, with driver training well underway. Now is perhaps the opportunity to see this route used routinely by passenger services branching off the ECML at Morpeth North Junction, and heading towards Newcastle via Blyth?
This would help drivers to retain route knowledge, by making it a regular route it would mean regular staffing, and wouldn’t present a huge issue to divert trains if all drivers were familiar with this as an alternative route between Newcastle and Edinburgh.
The other benefit of regular working is ensuring the compatibility of rolling stock, for example the bi-mode Class 80x’s used by LNER on the Tyne Valley Line recently could easily run via the Blyth and Tyne route too.
As stated in previous posts, services direct between SE Northumberland/North Tyneside and North Northumberland/Scotland could bring major economic benefits; easier connections to the Blyth Estuary would attract more businesses, and more investment into new industries, esp with easy links to Edinburgh, a major capital city and gateway to the Central Belt of Scotland.
Please sign the petition if you haven’t already done so to show your support, and feel free to share this post too!
Our petition is due to finish on 5th October 2024, and presently stands at an amazing 730 signatures, but can YOU help it to reach 1000 before the deadline?
Next year is Railway200, a celebration of 200 years since the opening of the Stockton and Darlington (S&D), widely viewed as the beginning of the ‘modern railway’.
Where the Northumberland Coast Loop fits into Railway200 and Bedlington400+
As set out in the above blog, railway history really started in North East England with Huntingdon Beaumont and his Bedlington Waggonways, technology he brought from his native Nottinghamshire, and led to the development of North East waggonways, pivotal to the development of the coalfield and the modern railways that spawned from waggonways.
Bedlington is soon again to become part of the national passenger network with the reopening of Bedlington Station due in 2025, alongside the wider Northumberland Line, which opens up a potential tourism opportunity.
Visiting Rail Heritage Sites by Rail
If the Northumberland Coast Loop route is developed, it would put Bedlington on a direct through route between Edinburgh and Newcastle Upon Tyne, both major tourism centres in themselves, with options to extend beyond at either end for truly national visiting opportunities.
Bedlington rails, as one example were key to the success of the Stockton and Darlington, and the Railway200 celebrations focussing on this line, the story of Bedlington is also worth telling, and given its potentially easy access by rail from Newcastle, Edinburgh as wider UK, why not run special trains (railtours/scheeduled trains or a mix of both) to take tourists to this important rail site by rail? A connection from Darlington to Bedlington would be easily achievable, and could even use the ‘balloon loop’ layout from Newcastle, to Bedlington, to Morpeth to Newcastle to avoid need to reverse the train at the Bedlington end of the route.
Dial Cottage, the home of George Stephenson is also within easy reach of Northumberland Park station via the 352 North Tyne Rockets bus, and beyond Newcastle, trains continuing onto the Tyne Valley Line could access Wylam for George Stephenson’s Cottage (his place of birth), as well as Dunston for the Staiths and the Tanfield Railway (itself celebrating it’s 300th anniversary in 2025).
Route Map of the proposed Northumberland Coast LoopUK Railtours trip 8th June 2024Bound for Craigy Railtour in 2017
This could either be used for specific railtours (as per the two examples shown above) or as scheduled ‘ordinary’ trains just using the route to showcase the heritage of the area, alongside demonstrating the potential benefits of this route for improving local public transport.
This recent article in the New Civil Engineer cites a campaign by Transport Action Network for the cancellation of the RIS2 road-building programme, which would include the dualling of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham.
In the document, the revised benefit/cost ratio (BCR) for the A1 scheme comes back at just 0.8, meaning for each £1 invested, a return of only 80p is expected. This gives the ‘upgrade’ a rating of ‘poor’ value for money. It also threatens areas of Ancient Woodlands.
Like many other organisations are now calling for, a national transport strategy needs to look at ALL modes of transport together, and investment into railways, active travel infrastructure and other forms of public transport often give a much better economic return, as well as actual reduction of emissions and road congestion.
As can be seen from the screenshot above, the A66 scheme would cost around £1.5bn with a BCR of 0.96, which means an ecomomic loss of approx £60,000,000; whilst the Portishead to Bristol rail scheme has a cost of £200m and a BCR of at least 2.0, meaning an economic gain of at least £200m above its cost.
Simple maths says that these investments are a bad idea.
The A1, taking the figure quoted above of £261.6m, and a BCR of 0.8 would mean an economic loss of £52,320,000 on this one scheme alone.
Road investment should be part of a wider national strategy, and schemes like the Northumberland Coast Loop (NCL) would likely have a much greater BCR (East Coast Main Line (ECML) schemes tend to have a BCR of approx 2.73).
Given that the A1 and the ECML/NCL routes are pretty much parallel routes between Newcastle and Berwick Upon Tweed, lets see them compared directly and what the economic returns would be?
I would like to call on our elected representatives such as local MP’s, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and leader of Northumberland County Council Glen Sanderson to respond to this call for cancellation of the A1 scheme but to instead make significant investments into the ECML (and to investigate the potential of the Northumberland Coast Loop as an expansion of the soon to open Northumberland Line).
The Northumberland Coast Loop 