The Northumberland Coast Loop

Million journeys milestone rapidly approaching, and a Green Signals podcast debate on extra carriages: 10th January 2026.

Northumberland Line nearing a million journeys

A recent post from Northern, the DfT operator who runs trains on the Northumberland Line, has announced a competition (https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/offers/competitions) for those using the Northumberland Line to enter, presumably ahead of the millionth passenger travelling on the route.

This is a fantastic success for the line, with the predictions in some quarters of ridership likely to be disappointing (‘no one will use it’ or similar statements) thorough proven wrong by the immense popularity of the line thus far, a great combination of affordable fares and a great timetable, offering fast and frequent connections into Newcastle Central.

Call for more carriages echoed.

In this article from North East Bylines, ‘More good news on the Northumberland Line‘, the call by Northumberland County Council for more four carriage trains to work over the Northumberland Line on a permanent basis has been echoed by Rail Minister Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, where he has asked Northern (an ‘operator’ that is part of the DfT operated railway, which also includes ‘operators’ such as LNER and Transpennine Express) to see what is possible to get extra carriages operating on the route.

Green Signals podcast debates extra carriages call

This is likely to prove highly challenging, and was recently discussed in Episode 118 of the Green Signals Podcast with former RAIL Editor Nigel Harris, and former SRA Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Bowker, both with considerable experience reporting on, and being within the rail industry respectively.

You can view this episide of Green Signals below, with the section pertaining to the Northumberland Line starting just after 52mins in, but the whole episode is worth watching, and for me, has become weekly watching alongside the longer running Railnatter series by Gareth Dennis.

Green Signals Episode 118

There is indeed a valid point raised that Northern cannot take the blame for insufficient rolling stock for the level of demand, when passenger numbers are way in excess of predicted volumes, and they are doing the best that they can with strengthening services where they can.

Northumberland Coast Loop solution?

Our solution, that has long been put forward, is to use a wider range of diesel or bi-mode ECML rolling stock that currently operates daily between Newcastle and Berwick/Edinburgh via Cramlington and Morpeth to instead run some services via Bedlington, Blyth and Northumberland Park.

There could even be some potential to use charter stock such as loco-hauled carriages for such as route if other stock is unavailable?

The proposed route is a long-standing diversionary line avoiding Morpeth and Cramlington, but now with the reopening and huge success of the Northumberland Line, could become a secondary mainline between The Toon (Newcastle Upon Tyne) and Auld Reekie (Edinburgh)

Auld Reekie has four lines connecting it to Glesga (Glasgow) across the Scottish Central Belt, which is arguably a huge part of the economic success of that area, comprising of The Falkirk Line, North Clyde Line, the Shotts Line, and the Carstairs Line.

A choice of two routes between Newcastle and Edinburgh along the Northumberland Coast (one via Cramlington, and the other via Blyth) could offer multiple benefits; it gives the obvious benefit of direct northward links from towns such as Blyth, as well as additonal train capacity to/from Newcastle if extra trains are operated alongside the existing Northumberland Line services, but also gives the network greater resilience in the event of disruption.

A good example of this was during October 2023 when Plessey Viaduct suffered a partial parapet wall collapse, closing one line completely to trains, and the other working at a much reduced speed. Had this event been a more significant structural problem, it may have resulted in the total severing of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Newcastle and Edinburgh, and may have seen the ‘Blyth and Tyne’ route via Blyth (the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop) come into use once again.

Using the route regularly has advantages in that drivers become more experienced at this alternative route (much like occasionally driving different routes between home and work to keep you familiar with it), as unlike driving a car, a train driver needs to gain ‘route knowledge’ by being accompanied by another driver for a period of time to learn it, and then regularly drive it to maintain that knowledge.

This route knowledge is vital to operate a train safely; knowing the speed limits on different sections of track, where crossings are, where signals and junctions are etc, meaning that a train can safely run on a route. Drivers need to know how much braking distance is needed for example to safely stop before a signal protecting a junction, so that they don’t pass a red signal (at danger in railway parlance) and damage equipment, or worse, be involved in a collision.

1050 signatures as of 10.1.26, thank you to all who have supported it so far!

Our petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop route has now reached 1050 signatures, showing strong support for this proposed route, but as yet has not had official support to be investigated.

This route could assist the capacity of the Northumberland Line ahead of opening to Newbiggin by the Sea by giving additional capacity on the ‘core’ section of the Northumberland Line between Bedlington and Newcastle, meaning that the local trains that could be already fairly full by time they reach Blyth would be augmented by longer distance services running over the route, offering more seats to/from Newcastle, but also potentially easing the number of people who might be making a connection via Newcastle to head northwards by rail.

Connections to or from the north via Newcastle is potentially a significant number of journeys given the relatively low cost of travelling into Newcastle by rail compared to driving and parking, or being driven in a taxi to a station such as Morpeth, and it would be interesting to see the ticketing data to see what percentage of the near million trips made on the Northumberland Line is composed of this market, for myself, I have made a number of trips to/from Northumberland Line stations from my own local station at Alnmouth, a sample of which are shown below.

Tickets bought online for an Alnmouth to the then newly opened Blyth Bebside on 25th October 2025.

A single trip from Newsham to Alnmouth on 15th April 2025, bought from the station ticket machine.

From anecdotal evidence such as speaking to friends and colleagues at work, I’m far from the only person making such trips, with one couple from Blyth for example travelling to Edinburgh via Newcastle for a short break by rail.

Again, there should be ample data, given nearly a million journeys to/from Northumberland Line stations to determine the scale of this market, but one that could grow given a single seat route, as direct trains are generally preferred over changes of trains by many passengers, as can be seen from article below with references to services calling at Cramlington.

Loss of direct services from Cramlington criticised by councillors in BBC article

Whilst the Northumberland Coast Loop doesn’t directly call at Cramlington station itself, it could still be of benefit to the wider town of Cramlington, as Blyth Bebside would be in each reach of the town, and offer direct connections to the north from there, or via Northumberland Park, again in easy reach from Cramlington.

As can be seen below, this is a route that can be implemented very quickly with the political will to do so, with my own trip almost a year ago on board ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ attesting to this, where the final leg of this long-distance circular tour going from Newcastle to Edinburgh via Bedlington on 8th March 2025.

Please support the campaign by sharing and signing the petition, and by sending it to friends and family too!

Lord Hendy backs extra Northumberland Line carriages: the N.C.L. an answer?

In a recent article from the Northumberland Gazette ‘Rail minister backs plans for additional carriages on the Northumberland Line‘, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, the Rail Minister has backed the calls for extra carriages to be sourced for the Northumberland Line.

Headline of the Northumberland Gazette article

To quote from the article; ‘In the letter to Cllr Sanderson, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lord Hendy wrote: “My officials at Rail North Partnership (RNP) have now instructed Northern to identify whether any permanent reallocations are possible. Northern is also in discussions with other operators to see what suitable rolling stock they may have available to increase capacity ahead of Northern’s new train fleet entering service in 2030.”‘

Different trains on the Northumberland Line alongside Northern 156’s & 158’s?

Of this quote, one line is particularly interesting from our campaign’s perspective: ‘Northern is also in discussions with other operators to see what suitable rolling stock they may have available to increase capacity ahead of Northern’s new train fleet entering service in 2030.’.

This suggests that trains from other operators may well be seen on the Northumberland Line, assisting the Northern Class 156 & 158 trains currently used. One option is for these extra trains just to ply up and down to Ashington, but train lengths would be limited by the bay platform at Ashington, where trains would need to reverse.

The Northumberland Coast Loop solution to improve Northumberland Line capacity issues?

A second option, and one that has now been floated for some years, indeed predating the Northumberland Line itself opening, is that a large part of the route from Newcastle to Bedlington can be part of a new through route between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Taking a northbound train as an example, leaving from Newcastle, it could run up the line as far as Bedlington, before leaving the Northumberland Line heading west, and travelling along the existing freight line through Hepscott, then, at Hepscott Junction, curving back north, and travelling around the c.1980 opened Morpeth North Curve to rejoin and head towards the Scottish Border on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) into North Northumberland and Scotland.

Route map of railways and the Tyne and Wear Metro north of the River Tyne and along the Northumberland Coast, showing the two potential rail routes between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Indeed, I wrote an email to Cllr Sanderson yesterday, ahead of seeing the above article, to reiterate the advantages of the Northumberland Coast Loop route, with an example given being the Transpennine Express ‘Nova 1’ (Class 802) trains being used on a Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh route, with each train having 342 seats in total, comprised of 318 in Standard Class, plus 24 in First Class, though this is not the only type of train that could work over this route.

This compares favourably with two-car Class 156 trains, which have between 146 and 152 seats, so even when working in four-car sets, have a maximum of 304 seats, 38 less than the Nova 1 trains. The Class 158 trains have an even smaller seating capacity for a two-car set, with between 138 and 142 seats each, and working as a set of four carriages having just 288 seats.

Working of longer trains over the Northumberland Line, and stopping at platforms shorter than the train itself is not a major issue, as many modern trains can selectively open doors, so that only those safe to exit or enter to or from the platform will actually be opened. An extreme example of this is Beauly, near Inverness in Scotland, where even for two-car Class 158 trains operated by ScotRail, only one door is opened to allow passengers to board or exit from the very short 15m (49ft) long platform.

Different liveries but one operator behind the scenes

It is also worth noting that an ever increasing number of the ‘operators’ are effectively integrated behind the scenes, as LNER, TPE and Northern are all run directly by the Department for Transport (DfT), and have been for a number of years, so whilst a red LNER train, the silvery blue of TPE, and the dark blue and white Northern liveries, and associated staff uniforms on each train look different, the underlying operator for all of them is the DfT.

A good parallel to this is high street bank brands; Natwest is one recognisable bank brand, but is fundamentally at a higher level is the same bank as Royal Bank of Scotland, and Coutts, them all being a part of the Natwest Group.

This means that it is in the hands of the DfT, directly controlled by the Government, to decide to operate Newcastle to Edinburgh TPE or LNER trains over the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop route, but doing so has wider advantages than just increasing the capacity of the railway between Newcastle and Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park.

Faster journeys between SE Northumberland and the North (North Northumberland and Scotland)

An added benefit is the reduced journey times that this route could bring for rail travellers heading north from SE Northumberland or south into that area, as outlined in a recent blog post, a trip from Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside could be reduced to as little as 29 minutes, compared to the 1hr 34min trip I made on 22nd December 2025 via Newcastle.

The Northumberland Coast Loop route is faster by virtue of going directly between North Northumberland and SE Northumberland, avoiding the additional travel time and distance of going beyond the destination into Newcastle, awaiting a change of train, and back-tracking up the Northumberland Line to reach the end destination, as well as avoiding the often slow bus services that connect poorly at Morpeth station.

Better rail connections beyond just the Northumberland Line, whilst itself brilliant for the area will also help to further boost the local economy, bringing in new businesses, or making existing ones more attractive.

Resilient railway routes

A wider advantage is also the resilience of the railway as a whole; using this route regularly would maintain driver and crew knowledge of this already recognised diversionary route, which while not used in the event, was highlighted with the structural issues seen with Plessey Viaduct in October 2023, which had it been more severe, could have seen the ECML totally severed between Newcastle and Morpeth, but the route via Bedlington could have carried some traffic between Newcastle and Edinburgh to maintain a connection.

With the line at present little used, it can be presumed that few train drivers will hold route knowledge over it, but with a route running regularly, and the behind the scenes integration of the railway ongoing, perhaps all, or most Newcastle to Edinburgh drivers could, in time, be trained on this diversionary route, and drive it periodically to keep their knowledge fresh and ready in the event of any disruption?

Strong support for the Northumberland Coast Loop

As of 1st January 2026, the petition for Newcastle Central – Northumberland Park – Blyth Bebside – Edinburgh route stands at 1049 signatures, around the same as the May 2007 SENRUG petition handed into 10 Downing Street, in support of what is now the Northumberland Line; a route now nearing a million passengers after just one year.

The Northumberland Coast Loop route would likely be a very similar success; a low risk by using the existing rail link between Pegswood and Bedlington with the potentially high reward of well-filled trains to boost the local economy significantly, even a trial would be surely worth a chance in 2026 given the vast volume of passengers seen on the Northumberland Line, and the reputed success of the Sunday extensions to the MetroCentre from Ashington, perhaps a Sunday N.C.L. service could be a way to test the water on this proposal?

Please support the petition by clicking the link here: https://www.change.org/p/start-a-newcastle-edinburgh-rail-service-via-blyth-bebside-and-northumberland-park/exp/cl_/cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB/4/679068674?recruiter=679068674&recruited_by_id=f8c66ca0-ee1b-11e6-b726-5dfd818fd527&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB%3A4

Breaking The Circle Report

An interesting report from The Scottish Green Party about rail investments in the Fife area of Scotland, certainly food for thought for rail campaigns in Northumberland and wider UK…

…have a read below and all the best for 2026!

https://greens.scot/sites/default/files/public/BreakingTheCircle.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawPBTvFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR65kSFYZgAlfUub4sq_V3WeGfcHMzpiSBI6O8b69E2OnuvwZ3TUI4qMyjPBkg_aem_EHtgppvVKtzwvEzJd_ECjw

The Northumberland Coast Loop heading into 2026: The second route between the Toon and Auld Reekie?

It has been another good year for the Northumberland Coast Loop campaign, but the work continues as we all head into 2026.

Petition performing strongly

Our petition to ‘Start a Newcastle – Edinburgh Rail Service via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park‘ has, at time of writing gained the support of 1,049 people, thank you to all who have signed it so far, and please keep sharing with friends and family to keep the momentum going!

A year of the Northumberland Line; not enough trains…yet?

A recent post by NEPTUG ‘One full year of new Metros and the Northumberland Line.’ discusses the success of the Northumberland Line to date, with the millionth passenger soon to be expected, and talk of extension to Newbiggin by the Sea, whilst two of the stations are still awaiting opening (Bedlington, and Northumberland Park), and the line suffers at certain times from severe overcrowding, especially with short two-car Class 156/158 units being provided to carry the vast numbers wishing to travel.

The use of the line being far greater than was originally anticipated, means that the rolling stock that is available isn’t enough to meet times of peak demand, and additional units of the type used to/from Ashington are not easy to source from elsewhere, with fleets of Class 156/158 needed to run routes around the UK.

This is why some Northumberland Line trains run with only two carriages; there is a shortage of that type of train nationally, but the Northumberland Coast Loop potentially offers a solution, by using other types of train over a large part of the route to augment the existing services.

It could be said that extension to Newbiggin without running more and longer trains on at least the Northumberland Line would add to the overcrowding issues, trains would fill at the northern end of the line, leaving no space further south, as is already experienced at stations like Seaton Delaval.

Our proposal is that more trains should run via the Northumberland Coast Loop route, making more seats available and therefore adding to the capacity of the line to carry passengers, which is outlined below…

There is more than one route to travel by train between Newcastle and Edinburgh…

As can be seen from the route map below, from Newcastle there are two routes towards Berwick (and Edinburgh) that are possible, one is well established route via Cramlington and Morpeth stations, whilst the other, less well known route is the Northumberland Coast Loop route, running via Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Bebside, and Bedlington, before cutting back across through Hepscott, and rejoining the mainline headed towards Pegswood and destinations north.

Map showing the two routes possible from Newcastle Central to Edinburgh Waverley; the usual route via Cramlington and Morpeth, the other via Northumberland Park and Blyth Bebside.

The foot crossing on Morpeth North Curve, part of the route linking Bedlington to Pegswood directly by rail

The route already exists, and is used routinely for freight, indeed the next train planned to use the route between Pegswood and Bedlington is the 6E46 GBRf operated Fort William to North Blyth alumina train, due to run later this week on Friday 2nd January 2025, which passes through Pegswood, comes off the ECML at Morpeth North Junction, and then runs to Bedlington sidings, where it turns around to head to its terminus at Cambois.

Nothing is unprecedented!

This route has also been used before during diversions around Morpeth in the 1980’s and 1990’s, as shown by the still photos below, as well as even captured on film (YouTube link, then go to about 29mins in)

Photo of a diverted HST running in parallel to the Tyne and Wear Metro near Northumberland Park/Palmersville, courtesy of Mr P. Kirkland.

An Ian Royston photo of a diverted HST near Northumberland Park.

A still from a YouTube video showing diverted HST running through Bedlington (29 mins into video approx)

More trains that are longer than the platforms could still work to ease congestion on the Northumberland Line.

Some of you may look at the above photos of now almost retired Class 43 HST’s, or their modern equivalents in the LNER Azuma fleet, or other modern trains and rightly question that they are much longer than the new platforms are at stations such as Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Bebside, or Bedlington, and think: ‘How will that work?!?‘

For trains longer than their platform, a system known as selective door opening (SDO) can be used, meaning only those doors safely near a platform are opened, the rest remaining locked, safely keeping people within the train if they cannot safely exit onto a platform, falling out of the train onto the track isn’t going to happen by using trains longer than the platform, it will be safely managed by competent staff on board and the clever safety systems built into modern trains, you can’t reach out of the window to turn the handle like you could when the line closed in 1964.

A great example of this can be witnessed at Beauly station, near Inverness in Scotland, the UK’s shortest platform of all at just 15.06m (49ft 5in) long, and even the two-car ScotRail Class 158 trains (almost identical to those used on the Northumberland Line, just in a different colour vinyl) are much too long for this tiny platform, but manage it safely by just opening one door.

A more local example is Chester-Le-Street, where the length of the platforms means that exiting is only possible from four carriages on the train.

Beauly is still a remarkably well used station considering its minute size, being used by 33,508 passengers in the 2024/25 year. This is a far larger number of people than travel to or from many Northumbrian stations with much longer platforms, such as Acklington for example which saw just 1 passenger for every 39 who boarded or alighted from just one train door at Beauly.

Ashington is a more challenging station as it is a bay platform, so a train that is too long for the platform would potentially be foul of the line behind (the back of the train wouls still be on the through line), and might also lock the signalling system from being able to change the points for it to come back to Newcastle on the correct track.

At the ‘through’ stations elsewhere on the line, this isn’t an issue as the train will simply continue ahead after stopping.

As an example, a bi-mode (electric and diesel powered) LNER nine car Azuma could depart Newcastle, run up the Northumberland Line, calling at some stations (probably Northumberland Park and Blyth Bebside), and then continue via Hepscott to rejoin the ECML and head towards Berwick and Edinburgh.

As can be seen, the ‘Azuma’ fleet runs daily to Inverness, well away from overhead wires, via Blyth wouldn’t present any issues from the absence of overhead wires.

The availability of trains is probably a greater constraint than what could run over the route, but looking at a much wider range of train types might reveal some suitable units?

For example, there are reputedly six stored five-car Class 221 ‘Super Voyagers’, numbered 221 107, 221 110, 221 111, 221 112 221 113 and 221 117, 221 118 stored around the UK.

Sister members of the class are thundering daily between Newcastle and Edinburgh for CrossCountry, so could they be brought into use by Northern/TPE/LNER to run a Northumberland Coast Loop service, boost the capacity of the Northumberland Line and provide a new connection to, from, and within Northumberland?

This is of course just one potential option, and is in no way a definitive answer, but perhaps standing somewhere in a siding, a suitable fleet is awaiting a chance?

Cab rides along the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop

A pair of old videos on YouTube show the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop route, the first, from Benton Junction to Morpeth North Junction shows the northbound trip, whilst the second one shows the same route, starting on the Morpeth North Curve, and working southwards towards Benton Junction and Newcastle.

It is important to note that these cab ride videos pre-date the Northumberland Line project by a significant margin, and show the line as it was before the works to enable the reintroduction of passenger services began such as building new stations or closure of the level crossings at Chase Meadows or on the A1061.

These videos have simply been found on YouTube; all copyright belongs to the original uploader and ownership is theirs entirely, these links are posted for you to view them if you would wish to!

Christmas Eve Update 2025: Alnmouth (for Alnwick) to Blyth Bebside in just 29 mins by rail?

A quick update for Christmas Eve 2025, and a final wish of a Merry Christmas to all!

…joy (valve gear), for a Christmas cracker themed railway pun!

Bedlington, and Northumberland Park progressing towards completion!

In this article from the Chronicle ‘Work on new Northumberland Line station making ‘great progress’ ahead of opening next year‘, it has been announced by contractors Morgan Sindall that Bedlington railway station, alongside that at Northumberland Park are making great progress towards completion in early 2026 (no official opening date yet given).

Phased opening but huge success to date

Despite the phased opening of the stations; with Ashington, and Seaton Delaval being open on 15th December 2024, joined by Newsham on the 17th March 2025, and Blyth Bebside on 19th October 2025, the Northumberland Line has been a huge success, with the line rapidly approaching a million passengers, having carried at least 920,000 people by the first anniversary of opening on 15th December 2025.

Expansion to Newbiggin by the Sea; warmly welcomed but as yet, no mention of the Northumberland Coast Loop to expand the Northumberland Line.

Another interesting snippet in the above Chronicle article is the mention of extension to Newbiggin, with Cllr Sanderson quoted as saying “The next big step is to get some more carriages and I have written to the secretary of state asking for that. Secondly, we want to move the line further north to Newbiggin. That is something I have been talking to the mayor about and she is very supportive of the idea. Hopefully, we will see an even bigger Northumberland Line in the not too distant future.”

Whilst the extension to Newbiggin is warmly welcomed, the need for extra carriages could be met by the suggested Northumberland Coast Loop route being adopted, as it would put additional trains over the Northumberland Line between Bedlington and Newcastle Upon Tyne, providing much needed additional seats to/from Newcastle to towns such as Blyth, as well as providing a direct route northwards into North Northumberland and Scotland from North Tyneside and SE Northumberland, saving a significant amount of journey time compared to travelling via Newcastle Central to make connections.

With the line already in existence and regularly used for railfreight; unlike the long-lifted line to Newbiggin, could we see trains on the Northumberland Coast Loop as early as 2026?

With the route completely in existence, and used regularly for freight between the Port of Blyth and Scotland (mostly the North Blyth to Fort William Alumina trains running multiple times per week), this route should be one capable of being brought into use swiftly, and would work to ease the crowding seen on the Northumberland Line by adding extra trains, as well as significantly cut journey times by using the existing direct rail route from Bedlington to Pegswood.

Monday 22nd December 2025 – Alnmouth to Ashington via Newcastle

Take for example my trip from Alnmouth (for Alnwick) to Ashington on Monday 22nd December, which took 1hr 34mins, starting at 06:26, arriving at Ashington at 08:00.

With a direct link from Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside, this journey time could be cut to comfortably under an hour, using the existing line connecting Pegswood to Bedlington station and the northern end of the Northumberland Line, as will be explored below.

Tickets for travel from Alnmouth to Ashington via Newcastle, Monday 22nd December 2025

My train, LNER Azuma 801201 approaches Alnmouth and passes the ‘Chathill Flyer’ heading north on Monday 22nd December 2025

Details of 1Y07 Berwick Upon Tweed to London Kings Cross

Had a direct semi-fast train existed from Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside, the trip between those two stations would be approximately just 29 minutes by an estimate from existing timetables, and using the Seven Counties Rambler timings for Pegswood to Bedlington (11 mins from Alnmouth to Pegswood, 2 mins dwell at Pegswood, then c.13 mins from Pegswood to Bedlington, and finally 3 mins from Bedlington to Blyth Bebside).

Alnmouth to Newcastle, a 28min minute trip by train (06:26 to 06:54) on 1Y07, Monday 22/12/25

As can be seen above, 1Y07 passed Pegswood at 06:39 on Monday 22nd December, yet I was not to reach Blyth Bebside until 07:51 on 2T09, a full 72 minutes later, despite the two stations only being 13 minutes apart by the direct rail route, a potential saving of 59 minutes of travel and connecting time at Newcastle Central in this case.

2T09 from Newcastle to Ashington worked by 156496 on Monday 22nd December 2025

156496 to work 2T09 standing at Platform 1, Newcastle Central on Monday 22nd December 2025.

156496 having worked 2T09 stands at Ashington on Monday 22nd December 2025 at 8am.

From Blyth Bebside, the travel time to Ashington is a modest 9 minutes, as taken from the timetable of the train I was aboard on Monday 22nd December.

Journey of 2T09 from Blyth Bebside to Ashington on Monday 22nd December 2025

Therefore it can be concluded that a trip from Alnmouth (for Alnwick) to Ashington via Blyth Bebside would be in the ballpark of a 1 hour trip; 29 mins from Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside on a direct rail service (allowing for an intermediate stop at Pegswood, and generous timing from Pegswood to Blyth Bebside), and 9 mins from Blyth Bebside to Ashington accounting for 38 minutes of rail travel, and a generous 22 minute connection time at Blyth Bebside to change trains.

There is scope that if the line from Morpeth North Junction (where the route to Bedlington diverges/converges from the East Coast Main Line (ECML) in a southbound or northbound direction respectively) to Bedlington was to have similar line speed upgrades to the rest of the old ‘Blyth and Tyne’ lines, now part of the Northumberland Line, the 13 minute journey time could be further reduced with trains able to run faster along that stretch of line.

As stated above, a direct rail service from Alnmouth to Blyth Bebside could have saved 59 minutes of travel and waiting time between trains at Newcastle, compared to my actual trip on Monday 22nd December 2025.

This is why I feel so strongly that the Northumberland Coast Loop, with trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park should be strongly considered an a next step for the Northumberland Line, alongside the Newbiggin extension, if implemented, it could:

Significantly reduce journey times from SE Northumberland and North Tyneside into North Northumberland and Scotland, by using the direct rail link that already exists from Bedlington to the ECML at Morpeth North Junction near Pegswood Viaduct.
Add extra trains onto the Northumberland Line, easing the significant overcrowding seen on this very popular line, meaning it can transport more people by clean, green, and much safer rail travel.
Add to the positive economic impact of reopened stations in SE Northumberland by providing direct links to North Northumberland and Scotland, and putting large towns such as Blyth onto the InterCity rail network between Edinburgh and Newcastle, making the area even more attractive for investment, and giving local residents even better access to the rest of the UK.

In the next few days, I will be again writing to Cllr Sanderson at Northumberland County Council, as I did in October 2024, to again raise the Northumberland Coast Loop as an option for expansion of the Northumberland Line in 2026.

If you can, please add your name as soon as possible to the petition if you have not already done so: https://www.change.org/p/start-a-newcastle-edinburgh-rail-service-via-blyth-bebside-and-northumberland-park/exp/cl_/cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB/9/679068674?recruiter=679068674&recruited_by_id=f8c66ca0-ee1b-11e6-b726-5dfd818fd527&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490421148_en-GB%3A9

Thank you all for your amazing support so far, and if you can, please also email or speak your local elected respresentatives (Parish and Town Councillors, County Councillors, your local MP, Mayor Kim McGuinness etc) to give this proposed route as much support as you can.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, RH.

Northumberland Coast Loop Campaigns, Christmas 2025, and trains on the loop in May 2026?

First of all, I’d like to wish all readers of the blog a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, it has been a busy one lately with work and family commitments but starting to catch back up now!

Sensational Stats

The release of passenger figures in recent weeks has shown a tremendous number of people travelling by train to, from, and within Northumberland; from Berwick Upon Tweed having over 707,000 passengers per year, to even seeing modest, but still significant growth on stations only served by the ‘Chathill Flyer’.

Table of passenger station figures for N.C.L. stations.

The amazing success of the Ashington – Newcastle ‘Northumberland Line’ is still fae beyond even the most optimistic expectations; on its anniversary back in the 15th December, it was announced to have had over 920,000 passengers since it opened a year before in December 2024!

Even for this campaign, the progress it has made this year is astonishing, with 18,378 visitors since 1st January 2025 viewing the website and blog posts 21,710 times as of 23.12.25.

Petitions Progress

Northumberland Coast Loop: Newcastle to Edinburgh via Blyth Rail Service

In a similar success, the Newcastle to Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park petition is also continuing to make progress, with 1047 signatures gathered so far, with that number steadily increasing day by day.

N.C.L. Rail Link Petition as of 23.12.25

The need for this route to be implemented ASAP is clear from announcements such as that made on 20th December 2025, where high passenger numbers were expected to lead to very busy trains; a way to alleviate it relatively quickly could be to use the through route made possible by the Bedlington to Pegswood line to run some diesel or bi-mode trains currently used on the ECML between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Cramlington to instead run via Blyth.

As can be seen from the huge success of the line to date, the extension of Sunday trains to MetroCentre, and talk of future expansion to Newbiggin by the Sea, we don’t need to await the completion of the line to implement the Northumberland Coast Loop route, and possibly it could be put in place by May 2026?

Alnwick, Alnmouth Station, and Amble ‘Bus Meets Train’ Bus Service

A second campaign for better, dedicated bus connections from Alnwick and Amble to Alnmouth station is also performing strongly, with 882 signatures gained so far, but as ever, more signatures are always welcomed!

Reopening of Choppington Station

A more recent petition has been launched to build support for a new railway station to be built at Choppington, on the line linking Bedlington to Pegswood and Morpeth, which could be served by both Northumberland Coast Loop services, as well as the long-proposed Bedlington – Newcastle via Morpeth service, so would be in a well-positioned location to be well served by new rail services, and if located near the A1068, could be an excellent interchange location for local buses too.

Choppington Station petition as of 23.12.25

If you can, please support the petitions above, as nearer to New Year 2026, I’ll be writing a small number of letters to local politicians to raise

920,000 passengers on the Northumberland Line in first year of operating!

A recent article in The Chronicle states that since opening in December 2024, the Northumberland Line has now carried 920,000 passengers!

This is a phenomenal success for the line, and gives a daily average of approximately 2,520 passengers being carried everyday on the route.

Happy 1st Anniversary to the Northumberland Line!

Today, Monday 15th December marks the first full year of the Northumberland Line, running from Ashington, Northumberland to Newcastle Upon Tyne, which opened on Sunday 15th December 2024.

On that day, only two stations of the six stations were opened, Ashington as the terminus of the line, and Seaton Delaval, with Newsham opening a few months later on Monday, 17th March 2025, and later joined by Blyth Bebside on Sunday 19th October 2025.

As of today, there is still not an official announcement for the opening of either Bedlington, or Northumberland Park stations.

Whilst the line is still not fully completed with two stations remaining to be opened, the Northumberland Line has proven to be a HUGE success story in terms of ridership, with many hundreds of thousands of passengers having used the line since it opened, with the total figures quickly heading towards one million; hopefully a precise number may be released later today or in the coming days to show exactly how many have made use of the line in this first year?

UPDATE: 920,000 passengers have used the Northumberland Line to date, with trains running a cumulative 380,000 miles, with 110 drivers and 84 conductors trained on the route.

If anything, the line is something of a victim of its own success, as due to shortages of rolling stock, some trains are only made up of two carriages, resulting in far more people trying to use the line than there is capacity available

Our solution for this is the Northumberland Coast Loop, which would expand the types of train running via a large part of the route (Newcastle to Bedlington, therefore only omitting Ashington station), by running additional rail services from Newcastle to Berwick/Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park, which would provide additional seats towards Newcastle, but importantly also give direct links north from SE Northumberland into North Northumberland and Scotland, further increasing the estimated £450m economic gain the line has brought to the area.

As of this morning, our petition for the Northumberland Coast Loop route, from Newcastle to Edinburgh via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park has reached 1,043 signatures; showing a strong demand for such a service to be at least trialled, and bearing in mind the SENRUG petition in 2007/8 gained 1098 signatures to reopen the Northumberland Line as a whole (then called the Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Line), then hopefully the Northumberland Coast Loop can be given strong consideration as a solution to both the crowding problems on the Northumberland Line, as well as offering a new rail link connecting the highly successful Northumberland Line to North Northumberland and Scotland?

As we start the second year of the Northumberland Line, lets look forward to it’s continued success, and also how services could be expanded to meet the huge demand for trains to serve the area!

Northumberland Coast Loop station usage 2024/25: 1.245 million passengers in total.

With the recent publication of passenger figures for all of the existing railway stations in Northumberland in the Northumberland Gazette, a little analysis reveals the current and potential volumes of passengers who use these twelve stations between Berwick and Manors.

Headline from the Northumberland Gazette, 9th December 2025

Table of passenger figures for the stations open in March 2025 (Bedlington, Blyth Bebside (opened October 2025), and Northumberland Park excluded as data as yet unavailable), Newcastle Central also excluded to avoid skewing of data.

The table above shows the stations on the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop from Berwick Upon Tweed to Manors, and station entry/exit data from April 2024 to March 2025; with the stations at Seaton Delaval, and Newsham opening during this ‘ticketing year’, they represent only partial figures, as they were only open for 107 and 15 days respectively during this data period.

Blyth Bebside, opened in October 2025 does not feature in this data set, though from other announcements is proving to be very busy; a partial data set will not be available until the 2025/26 ticketing year. Bedlington and Northumberland Park will hopefully open before March 2026, and allow a similar comparison to above to be made in December 2026, but if they open in April 2026 or later, similar data won’t be available until December 2027.

To help make a more fair comparison between the stations a very rudimentary ‘average per day (passenger total ÷ number of days open during the 2024/25 ticketing year) gives a relative comparison, with Newsham almost exactly as busy as Alnmouth station as an example of this. This isn’t a perfect measure as no stations get services 365 days per year (i.e. Christmas Day), and some do not receive a service 7 days per week either (for example those only served by the Chathill Flyer).

To extrapolate this further, a simple prediction of 2025/26 data is a multiplication of this average by 365, thus allowing stations like Newsham and Seaton Delaval to be compared to other stations more directly in potential total numbers by December 2026, and is based on an assumption of all stations simply carrying on as they are now, but will all except Pegswood having seen passenger growth this year, it is most likely that these numbers will be underestimated and be below the real numbers in December 2026.

Ranking 2024/25

Berwick Upon Tweed takes a very clear first place with 707,310 passengers in 2024/25. It is followed by Alnmouth in second with 378,954, third place is taken by Seaton Delaval, which despite being only open 107 days, was used by 73,076 passengers.

Manors takes fourth place with 63,914 passengers but is a near doubling of the 35,892 carried the previous year 2023/24, likely due to the Northumberland Line having increased the service frequency to this station significantly.

Newsham takes fifth place with 15,576, but an important caveat is that the station was only open for 15 days at that point.

Sixth place goes to Widdrington with 2,652, seventh to Chathill with 1,580, eighth to Pegswood with 1,468, and in last place is Acklington with just 856 passengers, the final three, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Northumberland Park take joint last place with zero passengers as they were not open during that time period.

In total, the nine stations open within this ticketing year, with two only open for part of the year, saw 1,245,386 entries and exits together, and averaged out, represented 5,582 passengers per day, every day across all nine stations.

Predicting 2025/26

From the above table, and extrapolating the potential for the future of these nine stations, the ranking would change significantly.

Berwick would remain number one, but Newsham is likely to just get the number two spot with a predicted 379,016 passengers, pushing Alnmouth into third, Seaton Delaval would then take fourth place with a predicted 249,277 passengers, with Manors in fifth.

Based on the predicted volumes, the total passenger loads from these nine stations would rise by 539,641 passengers, to give a total of 1,785,027 per year up from the 2024/25 total of 1,245,386. This again is likely to be an underestimate as passenger use has been growing at almost all of these stations, so figure could well be above two million by December 2026, especially considering that Blyth Bebside numbers are not featured at all, even an estimate, and by then Bedlington and Northumberland Park may also be contributing passengers significantly too.

The data for Blyth Bebside, though not released yet is likely to be very strong, and could potentially exceed Manors for even a partial year, meaning it may take fifth place on the route, and possibly even fourth from Seaton Delaval, but only time will tell in December 2026.

Bedlington, serving not only the town of Bedlington itself but also other communities like Choppington, Guide Post, Stakeford, Cambois etc is likely to have a higher passenger total than Seaton Delaval, though only time will tell on this.

The station that might in the longer term take second place, and possibly even first could be Northumberland Park, which will provide an easy interchange between the Tyne and Wear Metro and national rail services, with Heworth, in Gateshead seeing 1.1m passengers a year.

If the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.) was implemented, Northumberland Park would then mirror Heworth in Gateshead, in giving easier access along the Northumberland Coast, with places like Alnmouth, Berwick, and perhaps even Edinburgh directly connected from N’land Park. Even without the proposed N.C.L. route, Northumberland Park is still likely to prove to be an immensely busy station, but with it, it could almost certainly be a rival to Heworth.

The smaller stations of Widdrington, Chathill, Pegswood and Acklington are likely to remain at the lower end of the list unless future timetable changes allow more services to call at these stations.

The case for the Northumberland Coast Loop

As can be seen above, both actual recorded use, as well as the huge potential usage of the new Northumberland Line stations easily puts them on a par with some of the busiest stations in the whole of Northumberland, with Morpeth station having 622,614 passengers, and Hexham having 431,278.

What is worthy of note is that the four busiest stations are all on ‘InterCity’ routes, Berwick, Morpeth, and Alnmouth are all on the ECML that links multiple cities from London to Aberdeen, whilst Hexham is on the Tyne Valley Line that links Carlisle to Newcastle.

These four stations all have rail services linking at least two cities either side of them calling there, which is likely why the passenger figures dominate the tables, a clear example of a station linked really to only one city directly is Cramlington, which saw 183,856 passengers in the 2024/25 year, which based on the predictions above, would see it fall behind Seaton Delaval in passenger usage assuming no changes in the timetable.

Blyth Bebside as an interchange for SE Northumberland?

Blyth Bebside is selected as the major station for Blyth, the largest town in Northumberland, due to its strategic location just off Cowpen Road, a major bus route into Blyth, as well as the closest station to many major businesses there, whereas Newsham is situated in the much more residential area of South Blyth, further away from its commercial and business areas.

The challenge of Cramlington station is that InterCity services are unlikely to call at both Cramlington and Morpeth, so a choice has to be made of one or the other; with Morpeth tending to be seen as the main stop of the two.

That being said, the settlement of Cramlington more broadly could be better served by a combination of both Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park acting as InterCity stations alongside Morpeth, as these two new stations are sited with much easier access to them, for example Blyth Bebside is sited near a main bus route between Blyth and Cramlington (Arriva X9 running via Front St, Bebside), which runs approximately half hourly.

The close proximity of the A189 Spine Road also makes access by taxi, getting a lift from friends/family, or driving easy, and even from an active travel perspective, Hathery Lane connects the former Three Horseshoes pub, just off Horton Road to Front Street at Bebside as a low traffic route, and a shortcut to Errington Street at Bebside via the ‘Little Wood’ could make this route even better.

Hathery Lane near Blyth Bebside station.

Blyth Bebside is also ideally suited to serving Bedlington (which also is connected by rail as well, just one stop along the Northumberland Line), but again shares easy links by bus, car or active travel (both over the Kitty Brewster Bridge, or via Furnace Bank).

Whilst further away, Ashington, and the proposed extension to Woodhorn and Newbiggin stations, would respectively be only 2, 3, and 4 stops away from Blyth Bebside too, and again easy existing or new bus links, as well as easy access from the A189 makes this station very easy to reach.

Northumberland Park as a hub for North Tyneside?

As mentioned above, Northumberland Park has the potential, given the proposed N.C.L. service being implemented, to become a major interchange similar to Heworth, which has usage of over one million passengers a year.

Heworth has relatively long distance services calling there that travel directly to places such as Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, even as far as Whitby, as well heading west to places like Hexham too.

With a direct link into North Northumberland, and perhaps as far as Edinburgh, it is highly likely that this would become an incredibly well used interchange for services.

If you support this expansion of services, please support the petition for a Newcastle to Edinburgh Rail Service via Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park, which now has 1042 signatures.

Thanks, RH.