The Northumberland Coast Loop is a proposal to see a range of services introduced on the alternative through route between Newcastle Upon Tyne and Berwick Upon Tweed (and destinations beyond) via Bedlington.

East Coast Main Line (Existing Services)

As of February 2024, the East Coast Main Line (ECML) is the only passenger carrying line along the Northumberland Coast, running between Newcastle and Berwick via Cramlington and Morpeth (the dark blue line on the second map).

This line of this route almost demarcates the western edge of SE Northumberland, with most of the settlements east of, or immediately adjacent to this line, which we’ll revisit later.

The services on this route largely provide connections from and between major stations (Berwick, Alnmouth and Morpeth, with Cramlington to a lesser extent) into Newcastle and other destinations to the south such as London, York, and Manchester, and to the north to Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and more.

To a lesser extent, there is a local service (all stations) between Newcastle and Chathill, locally referred to as the ‘Chathill Flyer’ which links many of the smaller stations but with a very minimal service of a morning and evening train, with the northbound morning service omitting several stops.

There are many improvements planned for this route, more stops by semi-fast trains being the primary service to most stations, but also a long-running campaign to see an hourly electric rail service along the route, all of which are welcomed.

While exact figures are not available due to commercial confidentiality, it is easily observed that stations in Northumberland such as Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick see a majority of trips to/from the south, but also a sizeable proportion of their passengers headed northward from these stations and not simply to/from Newcastle or destinations south.

As ‘Bedlingtonian’ from birth (now living in North Northumberland) Morpeth has always been viewed as the main station for the area, with the lines through Bedlington solely for freight, until the fairly recent development of the Northumberland Line, which is where, in my view there is an opportunity for change for the better.

Cramlington has always had a much more limited service compared to Morpeth, and has seldom seen direct services to/from North Northumberland and Scotland. One issue is that trains are unlikely to call at both Morpeth and Cramlington due to their close proximity, so Cramlington has always ‘played second fiddle’ to Morpeth despite it being a substantially smaller town. 

The issues with this Beeching-era arrangement (fewer ‘hub’ stations over local ones) is getting to and from Morpeth Station; requiring driving into Morpeth, catching the bus or getting driven/taking a taxi, as for most people, the walking and cycling distances are too great, alongside the very poor provision of safe walking and cycling routes (often no footpath or cycleway separated from traffic), ruling these options out for most.

Both Morpeth and Cramlington are towns notable for their traffic issues, Morpeth as the major station for the area is a good example to work through. 

Traffic around the station at Morpeth has perennially bad, with often long queues along the A192 Shields Road. This effectively increases the ‘resistance’ of using the railway, as journey times are lengthened, often unpredictably which means needing to allow extra time.

Particularly for the buses, traffic is often so difficult at the junction of Shields Road and Coopies Lane, where station bus turning circle is, that the local bus operators have long been reluctant (to say the least) of directly serving the station and instead using stops further along Shields Road, a 4 min walk away, which while not unreasonable, involves several road crossings (Shields Road, Kingswell and Coopies Lane), as well as entries to/from car parks.

The situation for drivers is also not ideal, as traffic congestion adds to the unpredictability of reaching the station, and with its constrained site, there is the potential at busy times to not have a parking space available.

For taxis, the parking problems are obviously much less of an issue, but road congestion will play out into higher fares.

It also must be said that traffic to/from Morpeth Station also and somewhat obviously contributes more broadly to the traffic issues in the towns themselves, with a similar issue at Cramlington that the town-centre location is great for walking/cycling and bus access but a drawback for ‘park and ride’ type access from other towns or outlying areas.

The Northumberland Line (Coming Soon)

Later this year (Summer 2024) the Northumberland Line is due to open at least partially, with the full scheme due to complete in late 2024/early 2025 judging by recent announcements.

In geographical terms, the ‘Northumberland Line’ is much more central to the area it serves, broadly sitting between the ECML and the Northumberland Coast, as can be seen from the map below.

This is often touted as being a ‘Reversing Beeching’ scheme, while the infamous ‘Beeching Report’ was only part of wider postwar changes to the rail network, it will go some way to bringing back local stations (ones within easy walking and cycling distance or much shorter bus/driving/taxi trip).

While the primary aim of the Northumberland Line is to bring back connections to/from Newcastle (and therefore easy connections to destinations beyond) into South East Northumberland, this major investment could potentially be put to even greater advantage by giving direct connections to/from the North.

It will obviously be easier to make connections at Central Station, for northbound services, but this would still entail travelling the ‘wrong’ way for part of the trip, adding somewhat unnecessarily to journey times and distance.

Carlisle to Bedlington (or Blyth Bebside?)

There is a further proposal to improve rail access to Morpeth by extending the present Carlisle – Morpeth trains to Bedlington. This link is welcome, but still requires changing trains to head north, and unless travelling from Bedlington directly, would mean two changes of train from any other station.

One solution, if possible would be to extend this service beyond Bedlington, getting over the river to Blyth Bebside would, in my view, be worthwhile exploring and potentially investing in a turnback siding/bay platform to enable extension of the service but extension even further to Newsham, Seaton Delaval or maybe even Northumberland Park/Cobalt Business Park would be worthwhile considerations.

The Northumberland Coast Loop

As can be seen from the map above, the issues surrounding travelling to/from Morpeth or Cramlington and their surrounding townships could be eliminated by simply routing some services to via the Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, then taking the existing freight line westward to rejoin the ECML at Morpeth North Junction and carry on northwards towards Pegswood and beyond. This would give direct connections between places in North Northumberland and Scotland to SE Northumberland and North Tyneside, both large centres for population and employment.

The intention for services along the Northumberland Coast Loop would be a mix of local trains (stopping at all stations en-route) and ‘semi-fast’ that call at some key places, which potentially could be Berwick, Alnmouth (for Alnwick), Pegswood (which coule be upgraded to ‘Parkway’ status fairly simply by addition of a car park), Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park or any mix thereof.

Costs

The cost of developing this route should be comparatively minimal – the stations already exist on the ECML section of line, and will soon exist on the sections of the Northumberland Line, and no new stations are planned as a direct result of this scheme.

Therefore the only costs would be in upgrading the route to handle passenger services; with both the ECML and N’land Line both passenger carrying lines now/in very near future, this would only leave the section between Bedlington and Pegswood to upgrade, with that also being utilised by Morpeth – Bedlington services potentially. This means the only specific section of line required would be the Morpeth North Curve which is about 1.4km/1mi in length with only one foot crossing (roads are bridged over the line).

Single Seat Trips

This would mean rather than having to travel to Morpeth or Newcastle to catch services, passengers could instead board or alight at a much closer local station, and enjoy reduced journey times alongside greater comfort and convenience of single-seat travel or a very short connection (i.e. Ashington to Blyth Bebside).

Would Blyth Bebside be better than Morpeth?

The soon to reopen station at Bebside might be almost perfectly placed to serve South East Northumberland, being in close proximity to the A189 ‘Spine Road’, which connects towns such as Ashington, Newbiggin, Bedlington Station, Cramlington and into North Tyneside as well as the A193 which is a major bus route in and out of Blyth and links the ‘top end’ of Bedlington (surrounding the Red Lion pub) to Bebside. Not only that but the station is near to existing active travel routes, and could easily be better connected to likes of Cramlington with some tactical upgrades to Hathery Lane, and to Bedlington via Furnace Bridge and existing the National Cycle Route 1.

As a stop for both local trains on the Northumberland Line and proposed mix of local and semi-fast services on the Northumberland Coast Loop, Blyth Bebside could be ideally placed as a ‘hub’ for the area and would work well alongside the existing hub at Morpeth, with the benefit of being surrounded by Blyth, Cramlington and Bedlington (the 1st, 2nd and 4th largest towns in Northumberland respectively).

Energising Blyth

With the huge investments (tens of millions of £’s) into Green Energy businesses in the Blyth Estuary, having this area connected via long-distance trains would surely complement this nationally important investment by providing connections to the rest of the UK?

Northumberland Park for North Tyneside

Similarly, Northumberland Park would arguably make an excellent ‘hub’ for connecting the North Tyneside area without the need to travel into central Newcastle by Metro, bus, taxi or driving and instead connecting at an ‘edge of city’ site. 

Northumberland Park could also be part of wider international connections, with the Port of Tyne being a major ferry connection across the North Sea that serves not only the North East but also Scotland (no similar ferry connection from Scotland to Europe), which has the mutual benefit and ‘virtuous circle’ of better rail services helping develop enhanced ferry connections and vice versa.

This aspect is highlighted by Steve Marsh in this video where he travels to Port of Tyne from Edinburgh to take the trip.

This station could also be a good location for incoming cruise lines to have onward rail connections to sites such as Alnwick/Bamburgh Castle and more which are common cruise line destinations, and would be served by Alnmouth Station in the short term and Bamburgh better served by the proposed Belford Station in future.

Initial Research

As a small campaign with limited funding (self funded), research has been limited to freely available polling so far.

However, from 481 respondents to a public Facebook poll in December 2023 returned the following results:

307 persons (63.8%) said ‘Yes – I would find it useful’,

Maybe/Don’t know recieved 48 votes (9.9%) and finally,

No – I would not use it at 126 votes (26%).

The above results imply that further, broader research is warranted to either confirm above basic survey or to dismiss the results.

If you believe this route should be investigated further, please contact your local elected representatives by post, email, phone call or in person to discuss the ideas raised, and share this post to your social media too.

Thanks for reading, RH.