The Northumberland Coast Loop

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.

An Artistic Interpretation of the Northumberland Coast Loop

Please see the image below as one of many artistic interpretations of the Northumberland Coast Loop by Garry Hall, who has submitted these on the ‘Northumberland Coast Loop Group‘ on Facebook.

AI Image of the Northumberland Coast Loop by Garry Hall, with ‘headboard’ added by R.H.

Why not pop onto the group to take a look?

N.C.L. Update 2.4.24

News

Petition: Quick update on the change.org Northumberland Coast Loop online petition: which has now reached 250 signatures at 20:00 on 1.4.24 since being started on the 5.10.23, and shows the growing level of support for the N.C. Loop to improve connectivity in Northumberland.

If you haven’t already, please sign it via link above and feel welcome to leave a comment too.

Website and Social Media:

The website is receiving a healthy level of traffic daily and has had 1868 visitors since launch in the early days of 2024, and on social media (Facebook page & Twitter account) steadily gaining page likes and followers.

Summary: I’d like to thank everyone who’s given their support thus far with the campaign and please keep on liking, sharing and discussing the posts on social media or via this blog to keep this potential future part of Northumberland’s railway network at the forefront.

The N.C.L. is a fairly modest scheme to link the East Coast Main Line to the Northumberland Line at Bedlington to give direct rail connectivity between North Northumberland and Scotland to South East Northumberland and North Tyneside, all the track is in place and regularly used, all it needs is services to link it up.

If you can, please contact your elected representatives at all levels, from Parish/Town Councillors, to County Councillors, NE Mayor Candidates (due for election on 2nd May 2024) and your MP (inc the prospective candidates ahead of the expected 2024/2025 General Election).

Future plans:

Attendance at SENRUG Public Meeting:

Work and family commitments allowing, I will hopefully be attending the meeting above, and will try raising the Northumberland Coast Loop to the prospective North East Mayoral candidates who are attending – more on this nearer the time.

Build Long Platforms at Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park?

Could the delay in completing both Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park be an opportunity for longer platforms to handle longer trains, not just for the Northumberland Coast Loop but for wider use too?

Firstly, the intention of the Northumberland Coast Loop would be to see semi-fast trains serving both of these stations, so making them long enough (same length as platforms at Morpeth/Alnmough/Berwick of approx 200m-230m long) to serve longest trains would perhaps be a sensible addition at the construction phase rather than remodelling later on. The longest trains can have the most seats and thus makes the best use of every available path.

Secondly, there is the potential for special trains such as railtours (which may even possibly connect with Cruises into Port of Tyne as Northumberland Park is very close to the Tyne Cruise Terminal), which could offer a lot of opportunities for railway connections to tourist attractions across the North East, decarbonising tourist trips, as well as offering more time while on-shore by faster connections, meaning more time available at attractions.

Another less obvious case is the potential of special trains in 2025 to link into the Stockton and Darlington 200th Anniversary celebrations; as Bedlington made rails were used in nearly two-thirds of the S&D, and pivotal to other railways of following years too going beyond 2025.

This is just part of many more relevant 200th anniversaries associated with this part of the Blyth Valley, with locomotives built by R.B. Longridge – De Arend (‘The Eagle’) being one of the first pair of locomotives to work in the Netherlands in 1839 as one example. Surely it makes sense to celebrate a place so key in railway development via a newly reopened railway?

Just three lengthened platforms (two at Blyth Bebside and one at Northumberland Park) could be a fairly cheap and easy win and giving even a modest boost to tourism would be invaluable for the local economy creating new jobs and new opportunities. Assuming the platforms to be c. 100m in length as planned now, thats only ~100m extra to be added.

Any feedback is always welcome, especially any source that could give a fair costing of this and especially if a benefit/cost ratio could be calculated for this work… please get in touch!

The Northumberland Coast needs HS2

It might seem odd the claim that Northumberland, a county that HS2 has never been planned to pass through (the original, full proposal ended at Newcastle Upon Tyne) needs High Speed 2, but it arguably does.

There has been a long running issue for many years of London – Newcastle – Edinburgh expresses being the major focus of operators, with this recent BBC article (”Levelling down’ fears over new rail timetable’) highlighting the potential of cuts to smaller stations on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick in Northumberland, amongst many others.

This is all in aid of speeding up long distance trains using the existing railway; the more stops a train does, the slower it is, but on the exisiting network that also slows down the train behind (a bit like being in your car and getting stuck behind a bus calling at bus stops would slow you down if it doesn’t pull into a layby type stop, a stopping train will slow following trains if it doesn’t use a loop).

Therefore, it means a constant timetabling conflict between running the fast, almost non-stop ‘intercity’ service between the major cities mentioned, and slower services that call at more minor stations such as Berwick, Alnmouth or Morpeth, and for the Northumberland Coast the lesser used stations between the ‘Big Three’ which includes Cramlington, Pegswood and more.

So where does HS2 fit within this?

Before its heavy cut-backs, HS2 would have sent more of the London – Scotland expresses up the West Coast Main Line (WCML), which would have reduced the pressure on the ECML timetable greatly and allowed many more semi-fast (calling at likes of Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick), local services (all stations), and more railfreight which runs at a more limited overall speed but on average fits well with stopping passenger trains.

This is highlighted numerous times by rail engineer Gareth Dennis in this RailNatter series on YouTube and has advocated for HS2 in Parliament and on major news channels too, but also by groups like Greens4HS2 which reference the same article. For full disclosure I (RH) am a member of Greens4HS2.

Tweets by Gareth Dennis, showing the correlation between ECML timetable woes and the lack of HS2.

Greens2HS2 tweet showing the issue of ‘making most of what we have’ on local services.

The decision to ‘make do’ with the existing network and not to more fully build out HS2 prolongs this conflict in the timetable, and means that services to smaller stations are always under threat, and capacity being available for a new route like the Northumberland Coast Loop will be restricted.

If you want better local services along the Northumberland Coast, you need HS2 to work properly and be built.

Please lobby your MP’s and other elected representatives to fix this issue by building HS2 in full.

Could the Northumberland Coast Loop play a part in Northumberland’s Tourism Industry?

This article from the BBC ‘North East tourism businesses adapt to changing landscape’ mentions two issues; attracting tourists and having staff available. The Northumberland business was the Craster Arms in Beadnell, but it would apply across many more such as the castles, the historic houses and gardens etc.

An improved rail service, particularly serving North Northumberland, would be a welcome step, closely integrated with local buses as the railway tends not to be close to many of the attractions, but offers a much better option than hours travelling on buses from centres like Newcastle. If these are 100% on the ECML, it would still be welcomed, but a mix of ECML and Northumberland Coast Loop could be even better.

A major market for a pub is, of course, a lovely refreshing beer, maybe with or without food. So getting there without needing the car is perhaps the ideal situation – you can enjoy an alcoholic drink without worrying about driving home.

Unless you’re able to simply walk or cycle to the pub, then you need public transport to go ‘car free’. At present buses to/from Northumberland can take literally hours to reach places like Newcastle, or the larger towns in SE Northumberland, whereas rail is much faster over the long distances involved, is much more comfortable with access to toilets on board and a smoother ride too, but would need integrated with buses for the first and last miles between stations, pub and back to the hoose.

A better local service along the East Coast Main Line would of course be welcome, but for many, the new Northumberland Line stations opening later this year, and into early next year (2025) would be far closer and more convenient; meaning the Northumberland Coast Loop between Bedlington and Newcastle could potentially connect even more people than stations such as Cramlington and Morpeth.

So that could get the pub patrons there, but it could also work for staffing, mentioned as an issue by the publican in the article. Connecting places like Bedlington, Blyth and more to North Northumberland could allow the seasonal tourism industry of North Northumberland to draw staff from the large populations of SE Northumberland where improved access to work is a key part of putting the Northumberland Line back in place.

Having some services head northwards too would make further gains from the investment into the line at low additional costs – you don’t need any additional stations or even track (as its already in place linking Bedlington to Pegswood and onwards north), you just need the train put on the route.

What are your thoughts?