This is just shy of its first anniversary as a petition, it being launched a year ago tomorrow on 13th February 2025.
This compares well with the 2008 SENRUG petition to 10 Downing Street to reopen the Ashington, Blyth, and Tyne Line (the scheme later rebranded as the ‘Northumberland Line’, which had 1092 signatures according to their June 2008 newsletter, a line that has now carried over a million rail passengers since it opened in mid December 2024.
SENRUG petition for the reopening of the Newcastle to Ashington Line (later the Northumberland Line) had a petition with 1092 signatures when submitted to 10 Downing Street, a number the NCL petition has now exceeded)
This demonstrates the clear desire for such a link to be established for the first time; it never being a link before 1964 when the line originally closed to passengers, ALTHOUGH this nearly did happen in the Victorian era due to the North British, and the Blyth and Tyne Railway’s attempt to set up a Newcastle to Edinburgh route via Bedlington, then through Morpeth, Scots Gap, Reedsmouth Junction (which would have been built differently to be direct north to east, not east to south as actually built), then through Kielder, and on to the Waverley Line at Riccarton Junction to reach Edinburgh via Tweedbank!
This latter route never happened as the North British gained the Border Counties route from Riccarton to Hexham and onto Newcastle ahead of the route via Scots Gap and Morpeth.
Today, the Border Counties and ‘Wannie Line’ from Morpeth to Reedsmouth Junction are long gone and extremely unlikely to ever return (Kielder Water is now in the way for example), BUT leaving Newcastle, there are two potential routes as far as Pegswood; the existing ECML via Morpeth and Cramlington, and the newly reopened Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, then the link via Choppington to rejoin the ECML heading north, which forms the Northumberland Coast Loop (NCL)
This second route, taking in Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Bebside, and Bedlington would serve a large population north and east of Newcastle; Northumberland Park for example will be the only ‘mainline’ station in the North Tyneside area since the late 1970’s, and Blyth Bebside will serve the largest town in Northumberland (Blyth) directly, whilst also offering easier links to other major local towns like Cramlington, Ashington, and Bedlington, easily accessed by a range of modes of transport, such as walking, cycling, buses, rail, or driving, and much easier in many ways than travelling to Morpeth to use the station there.
Again to compare the petition success with later results, the 1092 people who signed the SENRUG petition were highly vindicated by the success of the Northumberland Line opening 16½ years later and carrying close to a million after just a year of operation; hopefully the N.C.L. route will be far faster to become a reality than needing to wait 16½ years, as it is a far more modest proposal to simply use an existing and working railfreight link between two busy and well used passenger lines to provide a new long-distance through service?
An excellent episode on Railnatter last night on the complexity of the UK rail network in England, Wales, and Scotland. Important to note is that a lot of this complexity is inherent to the system, but as inferred to in the video there may be some scope to simplify some parts by reducing the overall number of separate organisations and bringing certain things ‘in-house’ that are presently contracted out.
A fascinating watch and some great information on both obvious and obscure job roles on the railway network, train drivers are an obvious example, but perhaps being a railway chef wouldn’t spring immediately to mind?
Railnatter 295: Why the British rail industry is SO complicated
In my own limited experience of operations on a heritage railway, the complexity of running just one train on one line on a single day is easy to see, numbers in brackets refer to job role numbers.
In the main, this was volunteer labour, but the only real difference between a volunteer and a paid employee in a safety critical context is the absence of a financial payment for their time, everything else is identical in terms of standards of work expected.
Operarions Management: Duty Officer (1), Person In Charge of Incidents (2).
Train crew: Driver (3), Fireman (4), and Guard (4).
Signalling: Signaller (5), Crossing Keeper (6).
So to just operate one train on the railway for a day needed six operational staff at a minimum; and more trains would mean more train crews needing rostered, so a two train day would jump to 9 staff and so on.
All of the above is underpinned by other staff, an obvious example being staff in the shops who sell tickets alongside tea and cake (arguably just as important as coal and water for the loco!), so perhaps another four staff can be added just on the ‘commercial’ element, taking the total to 10 people to operate just one train calling at two staffed stations on one day.
All of the above is further supported by other teams of people; the people who maintain the locomotives and carriages, the track, the signalling system, the fabric of the buildings themselves, then there are those who sort out orders for things as diverse as coal, cake, tea, track components, cleaning cloths, oil, toys, books and much more besides, then all the records being maintained, accounts being compiled and much more, then there are specialist contractors who’d be organised to do certain jobs such as welding inside of boilers.
In my decade or so of volunteering, I’ve operated a level crossing, been a passenger train guard, operated a signalbox, but also been under locos, carriages, and waggons undertaking repairs, as well as occasional stints serving tea and coffee; just one a very large team of people helping get trains out and steaming along a short heritage line, and an interesting insight into the impressive effort of keeping a heritage line going.
For the paying passenger, all of this relatively massive complexity isn’t seen; they walk across to a quaint station building, buy a ticket, and a cup of tea, and wait until the train rolls into the platform, the guard opens the doors and they board the train, the doors slam shut, the whistle goes and away they trundle.
While the ‘big railway’ is obviously quite different in how it operates, there is a much greater scale; thousands of trains working to intensive timetables around the clock at speeds of up to and perhaps beyond 125mph, needing hundreds of signallers, thousands of train crew and many more to operate major stations.
A part that perhaps is omitted from the structure outlined by Gareth Dennis in his Railnatter episode above is the role played by myself and others as campaigners who are lobbying for improved rail services; in the case of this campaign for a totally new rail route to be established to better connect the Northumberland Coast overall, while others like CRAG (Chathill Rail Action Group) campaign for better rail services at a single station, some like SENRUG and the Campaign for Borders Rail (CBR) have had great success in seeing whole lines reopened to passengers, and in the case of the Borders Railway, one revived from total closure.
These groups will largely act through other bodies such as Northumberland County Council (local authorities), or devolved transport organistions to see their wishes for better rail services hopefully implemented.
Again a very interesting video from Gareth Dennis and his Railnatter series to look at the underlying structure of the rail industry and hopefully bring about more understanding of it.
Some key takeaways:
1. Railways need to be internally better integrated: more in-house employment of staff such as cleaners to allow easier career progression (i.e. cleaner > guard > driver > management)
2. Railways are part of broader sustainable transport: integration with other modes such as Metro, buses, ferries, active travel, and moreas part of a holistic system is a key part of the thinking, not just as a single mode of transport in isolation.
3. Sustainable transport needs to be politically integrated at all levels, some parts of the system should be much more locally devolved where appropriate (i.e. Nexus might have more control of rail/buses/other public transport at a local level than they do currently.
Thank you to all who have signed it thus far, and please add yours ASAP if you haven’t already, as the first anniversary of the petition is approaching on the 13th February 2026 and it’ll be great to see how well it has done by then!
Yesterday, I joined John from the Chathill Rail Action Group (CRAG) for a coffee and a chat about Chathill station, and the wider context of the ECML, the Northumberland Coast Loop and more besides in the brilliant surroundings of Barter Books, housed in the original Alnwick station.
Could the fortunes of Chathill change in 2026, a year that marks 75 years since the demise of the North Sunderland Railway in October 1951, and Chathill ceasing its status as a junction, to just a small, rural station since then, and one that presently is arguably under served?
The success of the Northumberland Line keeps being proven: passenger numbers pass 1,000,000 since opening!
On Friday 23rd January 2026, an event was held at Blyth Bebside station to mark the millionth passenger journey on the Northumberland Line since opening just 405 days before on Sunday 15th December 2024, as shown in this article from the Northumberland Gazette.
Headline of the article from the Northumberland GazetteImage from the article, showing the oversized ticket held by Cllr Sanderson and Alex Hornby, Commercial and Customer Director of Northern
Taking a simple average of dividing the million passengers by the number of days since opening (1,000,000 ÷ 405), the line has carried approximately 2,469 passengers/day over the route on average (rounded to nearest whole number).
This is very strong usage considering it was until recently a line only really used for railfreight, and so journeys have either switched from other modes of transport such as driving, or the line is generating totally new trips entirely.
The Northumberland Line may have cut 625,000 car journeys on the Spine Road in its first year?
Assuming a 100% driving to 100% rail switch, and using the national average for vehicle occupancy of 1.6 persons per vehicle (most vehicles having just the driver, with some vehicles having 2 or more), this may represent 1,543 fewer car trips per day, or 625,000 over the course of those 405 days.
This could mean that congested roads such as the A189 ‘Spine Road’, which runs on a very similar corridor the Northumberland Line from the Woodhorn Roundabout in Ashington, to the Redheugh Bridge in Newcastle.
Information from CIHT, shown below states that the A189 carries over 30,000 vehicles per day, so assuming a modal shift of around 1543 car trips by the Northumberland Line, this would represent around a 5% drop in road traffic. This will be helping to ease issues such as congestion, especially on roundabouts like Moor Farm; it would be interesting to see if data before and after the Northumberland Line shows a fall in road traffic at Moor Farm and on the A189 more broadly?
Northumberland Park station due to open on 22nd February 2026
This station is likely to be very busy right from the start, with it forming a key connection between the Northumberland Line and the North Tyneside Loop, which is the Yellow line of the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Starting at St James, the North Tyneside Loop runs along the north bank of the River Tyne to North Shields, curves north through Tynemouth, and Whitley Bay, then back east through Northumberland Park to South Gosforth, where it turns south towards Central Station and across into Gateshead and away towards Pelaw, and South Shields.
This new interchange will make transferring from rail to the Metro more attractive for a great many journeys, as it avoids the current requirement to travel all the way to Central Station to interchange between rail and Metro north of the Tyne, which will save significant time on many current journeys.
The Northumberland Coast Loop would offer direct rail links between Northumberland Park, Alnmouth, Berwick Upon Tweed, and Edinburgh.
If the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop service (petition link here) was to be implemented, Northumberland Park could be directly accessed from a much wider area of Northumberland; as the map below shows, it is possible for trains between Newcastle and Berwick/Edinburgh to take two different routes between Manors and Pegswood.
The current ‘mainline’ runs via Cramlington and Morpeth, but a second route, via Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park is possible using existing track that is traversed regularly by railfreight; this would be a very modest expansion of the Northumberland Line that would also offer additional trains and seats on this busy line between Bedlington and Newcastle, easing current constrained capacity due to shortages of suitable units such as the Class 156/158 ‘Spinters’ used by Northern.
Rail and Metro Map of North East England
This latter route would make areas such as Cobalt Business Park, Silverlink, and North Tyneside generally much more accessible from North Northumberland and Scotland, which could promote both existing and new businesses to develop in North Tyneside, bringing more jobs and opportunities for local people.
Northumberland Park for Port of Tyne Passenger Links (DFDS Ferry and Cruise Terminals)?
Whilst not on the riverside itself, another important aspect of Northumberland Park would be it being potentially a much easier station to use to reach the Port of Tyne ferry terminal for the daily sailings to/from Amsterdam aboard DFDS ships King Seaways and Princess Seaways, with King having capacity for 1325 passengers, with the smaller Princess having capacity for 1250.
Presently, foot passengers (those travelling without a car), may currently use Central Station if travelling from places such as Scotland (for which Newcastle is the nearest port offering European ferry connections) as detailed in the video below from YouTuber Steve Marsh.
YouTuber Steve Marsh travels from Edinburgh to Port of Tyne via Central Station in early 2023.
In the video, it shows that a good number of passengers were using the DFDS special bus from near Central Station to reach the Newcastle Terminal for the ferry (approx 3 min into the above video), and a similar service from Northumberland Park to the ferry terminal should be even easier given the shorter distances involved in doing so.
For Europeans visiting the North East or wider UK via the ferries Newcastle, a quick and easy connection onto a regional train at Northumberland Park could make accessing the region without a car much easier and more convenient.
Cruises could similarly use Northumberland Park as ‘local’ mainline station for access to the North East more broadly; many, if not all cruises using the Port of Tyne in 2026 are calling for just a single day, presumably arriving early morning and departing in late evening, giving a limited ‘ashore time’ from departing the ship to getting back and boarding again bound for the next port of call.
Therefore, time spent travelling needs to ideally be minimised, and direct rail services from Northumberland Park could make a big difference; not just north into North Northumberland and even the Scottish Borders, but also west along the Tyne Valley, or south on the East Coast Main Line or down the Durham Coast.
For example, cruise passengers frequently visit attractions to the north such as Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden, and Bamburgh Castle, and a rail journey from Northumberland Park to Alnmouth via Bedlington would likely be far faster than road coaches, with the option of using local coach operators for the ‘final mile’ for travel from railway stations such as Alnmouth to Alnwick.
Closer, smaller, and simpler station for easier connections?
Whilst Northumberland Park may first be advantageous from firstly being physically closer to the Port of Tyne terminals for both ferries and cruises, another factor could be its smaller size and simplicity being an advantage; with a single platform and smaller number of trains and routes (just the Northumberland Line at present, with Northumberland Coast Loop a potential second) it should be a far simpler station to use for those who perhaps are less familiar with rail travel or perhaps struggle in busy, noisy environments, especially those travelling ‘encumbered’ perhaps with luggage and/or children where simplicity and ease of use might assist using rail travel.
This compares well to the relative complexity of the twelve platforms at Newcastle Central and trains running on five different routes out of the city (ECML to Berwick, the Northumberland Line to Ashington, the Durham Coast to Sunderland, the ECML to the city of Durham, and the Tyne Valley Line to Hexham).
It is certainly possible that a Northumberland Coast Loop service may not terminate in Newcastle and could be extended on routes beyond the city, such as along the Tyne Valley (a precedent is the Northumberland Line trains now running direct to the MetroCentre on Sundays, with potential for Ashington to Hexham/Carlisle in the future perhaps?), but direct links onto the Durham Coast or ECML could be considered.
Northumberland Park for Newcastle Airport?
A long touted aspiration for change to the Tyne and Wear Metro has been a relatively simple one; to connect the Airport line to the North Tyneside Loop across South Gosforth Depot.
Rail Map Online image of South Gosforth Depot on the Tyne and Wear Metro showing the avoiding line
A triangular junction already exists at South Gosforth; there are the two main routes coming from the Airport and from Northumberland Park that both curve south and head towards Jesmond, and Central Station. The lesser known third side of this triangle of lines goes east-west across the northern edge of the depot; the Avoiding Line.
This east-west line allows a train departing from the Airport to travel easy directly to Whitley Bay, or vice versa go from the coast at Tynemouth through to the Airport directly. At present, this line is not in regular passenger use, but presumably could be with some relatively modest investment.
The main campaign calling for this is the SENRUG ‘Airport to Blyth Town Centre’, which would aim to rebuild the Blyth Branch into central Blyth, and then use Class 555 Metro vehicles from Newcastle Airport to Blyth Town Centre, presumably under battery power between Northumberland Park and Blyth.
In my view, wiring at the 1500v DC used by Metro on the Northumberland Line shouldn’t be done (as suggested in post below, hence the mention).
ONLY electrification at 25kV AC (mainline standard) should be carried out, which would allow a much wider variety of trains to operate over the routeunder electric power, and not constrain use of electric power to 1500v DC units such as T&W Metro Class 555’s.
The three road crossings as identified on the SENRUG page.
In my own view, a branch into Blyth from Newsham is now highly unlikely to be rebuilt due to the three road crossings that this route would require, as well as massive disruption to active travel corridors linking several schools adjacent to the route. Rebuilding the railway would mean several foot crossings or bridges being needed to keep active travel routes crossing the old trackbed open and coupled to the major disruption to traffic that three level crossings in the town could cause both in building and in operation, I don’t think such a link is the correct course of action.
The Class 555 Metro units could, with sufficiently large batteries (or transformed into ‘Brian Johnson’ AC/DC dual voltage units with both 1500v DC ‘Metro’ (as currently, pardon the pun) + the addition of 25kV AC ‘Mainline’ power capability, if the line was wired to the 25kV AC standard of most other lines in the UK such as the ECML) work somewhere else on the former B&T routes, perhaps North Blyth/Cambois with a revival of the Blyth Ferry similar to the Shields Ferry on the Tyne, or maybe to/from Morpeth, but this would come with the drawback of using up limited line capacity that might be better placed being used by longer distance passenger services via Bedlington, or by railfreight if demand is required.
Keep the Metro’s on the Metty?
That being said, I fully back the proposal for the Airport to Northumberland Park connection, with my own suggestion being a new route being a direct St James to Airport via Tynemouth, which possibly could be a revival and extension of the Blue Metro line shown on old maps of the system back in the 1980’s (pre Airport line), which was done to highlight peak time shuttles on the St James to North Shields section of the North Tyneside Loop, but could easily wrap around Whitley Bay, then through Longbenton to Airport if this route becomes implemented?
With the relatively small change of a St James to Airport route, and with the Northumberland Coast Loop, Northumberland Park station could become an even more significant interchange between rail and Metro services, again offering a simpler connection than the present situation of either changing at Newcastle Central station, or changing Metro at South Gosforth station (with the need to cross the bridge there between platforms.
In summary, a new link on the Metro across the depot, plus the Northumberland Coast Loop could make Northumberland Park station a major connection in the rail network for access to international ferries, plus an easier link to Newcastle Airport?
Please watch the video below from Green Signals about the digital pay as you go trial by East Midlands Railway, but a system that could have clear potential in places like Northumberland where many smaller stations are unlikely to get the infrastructure seen at major stations like Newcastle Central.
Green Signals special on the Digital PAYG ticketing trial
An interesting aspect of the app based system as detailed in the Green Signals video is the lack of need to make investments into ‘ticket validators’, and as stated in the video, this trial was rolled out in just 10 weeks or so, thereby offering a quick AND cost effective solution for passengers?
It also states that this system is complimentary to other ticketing systems, including paper tickets, not a 100% replacement, but the more options available the better!
The N.B.A.B.E. is an acronym for the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop rail route, and is derived from the stations it will pass through en-route, the three letter station code is included in brackets after the station name.
Newcastle Central (NCL)
Bedlington (BEJ)
Alnmouth (for Alnwick) (ALM)
Berwick Upon Tweed (BWK)
Edinburgh Waverley (EDB)
The first section from Newcastle to Bedlington section is a large part of the highly successful Northumberland Line, passing through Manors, Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Bebside, and Bedlington stations.
The second section between Bedlington and Alnmouth has two variations of route that can be considered:
Option A: The preferred option for this campaign, is to use the existing and available route between Bedlington and Alnmouth via Pegswood. This is used regularly by railfreight carrying Alumina between the Port of Blyth and Fort William, and empty waggons coming back, as well as by occasional railtours, and some historical use for diversions too. This route could also serve a widely proposed new station at Choppington, which could better serve areas such as West Bedlington and Guide Post, Stakeford etc. A large part of this route would also be shared with proposed Newcastle – Morpeth – Bedlington rail services, so only the short section of line comprising of the Morpeth North Curve (Hepscott Junction to Morpeth North Junction) would be unique to this proposed route, every other section would be shared with other passenger services.
Option B: Put forward by others, would see new link created via Potland (the Butterwell Line) north of Ashington, which would join the East Coast Main Line (ECML) somewhere near the village of Ulgham, Northumberland by using some sections of old mineral line, now long disused, as well as some new alignments to create a link facing in the right direction, as well as improving linespeeds. This section has no firm proposals for any intermediate stations between Ashington and Widdrington as far as can be ascertained.
Challenges on this route would include a disused level crossing over the A1068 at New Moor to be re-activated or replaced by a bridge, and heavy engineering, particularly on the northern end to create a wholly new junction onto the ECML, as well as easing of very tight curves in an area constrained by a nature reserve, local roads and paths (again with level crossings), and a landfill site.
North of Widdrington, and south of Bedlington both proposals are otherwise identical, it is only the section between Bedlington and Widdrington that varies.
The third and final section from Alnmouth to Edinburgh is the existing and familar ECML route passing through Berwick Upon Tweed.
Route map showing the Bedlington to Pegswood route (Option A), whilst the ‘Butterwell Line’ from Ashington to Widdrington (Option B) is not shown. Map by P.
The case for linking the Northumberland Line to Edinburgh?
The Northumberland Line, from Newcastle Upon Tyne to Ashington, Northumberland has been a huge success since it opened in December 2024, in some respects almost too successful with some trains being so full that they are leaving passengers on the platforms, and some complaints from those aboard that trains are too full, many of which are two-car Class 156 or Class 158 trains.
A typical Northumberland Line train of a two-car Class 158 at Blyth Bebside. (My photo).
These ageing British Rail ‘Sprinters’; Class 156 and Class 158 trains built in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, are used all over the UK, means that not only they are in constant high demand, but they are also in short supply. Many other routes would like more of these units to operate longer trains, but with an old fleet, there won’t be any new carriages built now, and new trains to replace them will be several years away.
With the sourcing of additional ‘Sprinters’ or similar units very challenging, the solution this campaign is offering is to widen the range of rolling stock regularly running over the majority of the route.
There is a much broader range of trains running between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Cramlington and Morpeth, and potentially some of these could run via the Northumberland Line to boost seating capacity between Bedlington and Newcastle if using the N.C.L route via Pegswood (Option A), and also via Ashington if the new Potland link was built (Option B)
High speed diesel and bi-modes via Bedlington?
An obvious constraint of the old ‘Blyth and Tyne’ lines that makes up Northumberland Line and the connection via Choppington is the lack of overhead wires preventing 100% electric trains from working over the line without a ‘Thunderbird’ locomotive dragging them along the unwired section, as seen below in June 1994, where the red ‘Thunderbird’ diesel loco Class 47 ‘47773’ is dragging the Class 91 ‘Electra’ 91029 and carriages around the Morpeth North Curve at Barmoor.
Photo and caption by kind permission of J. Wilson
However, there are still many trains on the ECML that are running on diesel, either totally in the case of CrossCountry Voyagers Class 220), or partially for some bi-mode trains such as the TPE ‘Nova 1’ sets (Class 80x).
Diesel under the wires, a CrossCountry Voyager at Alnmouth statiom, a train easily capable of running via Bedlington on its own power. (My photo).TPE ‘Nova 1’ bi-mode at Alnmouth; part electric, part diesel = equally at home on both wired and unwired lines. (My photo).
The two types of train above tend to be relatively compact at four or five carriage lengths, so likely able to still fit the fairly short platforms on the Northumberland Line, but are also capable of much higher speeds (up to 125mph) than the somewhat ironically named ‘Sprinters’ that are amongst the slowest trains operating on the Newcastle – Edinburgh route, with a top speed of about 90mph, much slower than the Voyagers or Nova 1’s.
The routing of fast trains via Bedlington is far from unprecendented; with the HST (Class 43) seen below in 2017 on the ‘Bound for Craigy’ charity railtour, but on diversions in the 1980’s and 1990’s, HST’s were used in service via Bedlington.
The 2017 ‘Bound for Craigy’ railtour heads west towards Hepscott, seen here at Barrington Road, Bedlington. (My photo).A pair of HST power cars haul the ‘Blyth and Tyne Mini Tour’ by UK Railtours towards Bedlington in June 2024. (Photo by kind permission of S. Miller).
Due to Morpeth North Curve only being opened c.1980, these diverted or charter trains have only ever been able to pass through stations long closed or disappeared entirely, as all stations on the route closed in November 1964, at least fifteen years before the curve that enabled a direct route to or from the opened to traffic.
Support, and the case for the Northumberland Coast Loop
Had history been different in the 20th Century, and the now Northumberland Line stations had remained open rather than closing in 1964, I feel that it is highly likely that some direct trains to North Northumberland and Edinburgh would have been started long ago; sites such as the huge business park at Cobalt, as well as regeneration of towns such as Blyth and Bedlington would very likely have spurred this on, and it could have brought a major, positive economic impact to the area had it come to pass.
Indeed, other towns that have always been served by direct trains to both the north and south such as Morpeth or Berwick are shining local examples of places that have thrived through having good rail links around the UK, such as this example of LUMO serving Morpeth and seeing substantial passenger growth of 50% in two years.
Lumo brings 50% passenger growth to Morpeth from London.
In contrast, towns such as Bedlington and Blyth, having never had direct long-distance rail connections before, and losing their local ones in the 1960’s, have suffered greatly from demise of heavy industries that underpinned the local economies of these towns, a direct rail link between Newcastle and Edinburgh, with hindsight could have helped offset the economic decline of these areas by providing easier connections for new jobs, or helping bring greater inward investment. Now with stations reopening, now is the chance to sieze the opportunity to try a direct link?
Between the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, there are four electrified railway routes; the Falkirk Line, the North Clyde Line, the Shotts Line, and the Carstairs Line. If those two cities can justify four electrified lines, surely Newcastle and Edinburgh, as another city pair can justify going from just the ECML, to having the traditional ECML plus the N.C.L.? A short loop of line, that already exists, and asking for an InterCity service to run around the coast through SE Northumberland and North Tyneside is a modest suggestion for a second connection between the Scottish capital and Tyneside?
Adjusted for inflation, a similar event in August 2025 would be worth around £18.6m to the local economy, a repeat of this event, now that the Northumberland Line is open to passengers would likely bring even greater value as more people may travel to an event such as this from further afield.
Northumberland has a great deal of tourism traffic coming from Scotland; Edinburgh based tour operators such as The Hairy Coo for example offer daily tours into Northumberland between April and October, which will only represent a tiny fraction of the overall tourist trade from Scotland into Northumberland.
A more direct rail route from Edinburgh, which is one of the largest tourism centres in the UK, could certainly benefit attractions such as Seaton Delaval Hall, Blyth Battery and more by putting them within a fast and easy connection from Edinburgh Waverley station.
There is also the potential for towns such as Blyth to benefit from direct connections to Edinburgh during events such as The Edinburgh Fringe; it is not beyond possibility that a hotel stay in Northumberland could be combined with rail travel to visit The Fringe, as shown by the late trains run in 2025 from this article in the Northumberland Gazette, and with Blyth having hotels like The Commissioners Quay having opened in 2016, a direct rail link to Blyth could make hotels such as this more viable to visit cities such as Edinburgh, bringing more jobs and income into Northumberland from hotel stays.
Late trains back from Edinburgh during The Fringe, could towns like Blyth be connected in future?
A direct rail link via Choppington would significantly reduce journey times compared to the current ‘dog leg’ of connecting via Newcastle, with an estimated time saving of c.45mins due to avoiding the unnecessary travel south, as well as changing train in Newcastle Central.
The end to end journey times from Edinburgh Waverley to Newcastle Central is are fairly reasonable too, the route via Bedlington taking only around 30 mins longer than the current route via Cramlington, so it isn’t likely to deter people from using this route for end to end journeys either, especially if fares on the other route happen to be higher.
All in all, the route is possible now using the existing line via Pegswood and Choppington, and with the modest use of resources to allow some driver training to gain route knowledge, as well as trains being passed to run on the route, additional carriages could be operated quite quickly to alleviate crowding.
Hopefully something that can be taken forward by NCC and GBR?
The Northumberland Coast Loop 