For 37 years (1988-2025) the humble four wheeled PCA waggons have taken alumina (a powder created from Bauxite ore) from the Port of Blyth terminal to the smelter in Fort William, Scotland (and also whilst open, the smelter at Lynemouth).
Somewhat famously, these waggons were for a short time hauled by Deltic 55022 ‘Royal Scots Grey’, with a YouTube clip set to the theme music for the 1971 movie Get Carter (some scenes filmed in Port of Blyth) you can view here: https://youtu.be/qYimjSWXEHE?si=PFxSEqP6cJD9SuUC
Still known locally as the ‘Alcan train’ from the long-standing former operator of the Smelter and branding on these waggons for many years, under Alvance these small four-wheelers have finally met the end, and will be presumably mostly scrapped on Sunderland Docks in the near future, though hopefully one or two might be saved for preservation.
On a happier note, this isn’t due to the end of the Alumina traffic from Port of Blyth to Scotland, it is simply that the wagons are being replaced by more modern and larger wagons.
In those 37 years, the PCA fleet of waggons has covered in excess of 50 million miles, equivalent to 2000 laps of the globe, 105 return trips to the Moon, or getting halfway to Mars, so they’ve certainly earnt their keep!
End of the line for the PCA’s, but a start soon for Passenger Trains?
The route of the ‘Alcan’ train, leaving Port of Blyth, reversing in the Furnaceway sidings at Bedlington (on the Northumberland Line), before heading west, towards Hepscott, taking the Morpeth North Curve to join the East Coast Main Line, and passing through Pegswood, Alnmouth and Berwick bound for Scotland.
This freight route perhaps highlights the existing infrastructure that could provide an immediate uplift to the Northumberland Line in permitting a direct route to North Northumberland and into Scotland by using this lesser known rail route for passenger services?
Construction of the Morpeth North Curve in c.1979, photo by P. Kirkland.
This curve from Hepscott towards Pegswood direct has only existed for about 45 years, very modern in contrast to most of the rail network, and has been mostly, but not always, been used for railfreight as by that time, the ‘Blyth and Tyne’ hadn’t carried passengers routinely for 16 years (with stations such as Bedlington, Bebside, Newsham etc. closing in 1964).
HST diversion over the Blyth and Tyne lines in the British Rail era, photo by Ian Royston. Photo showing a ‘drag’ of a Class 91 Electra by 47783 in 1994, photo by James Wilson
The above photos show examples of diverted trains in the 1980’s/1990’s using the then freight only route, but this has also been done by a number of railtours too.
The ‘Bound for Craigy’ Railtour of 2017, photo by R. Hogg
It is interesting to speculate that an alternative universe, and if stations had survived, it is probably highly likely that with the Morpeth North Curve being built, the area served by the Northumberland Line would likely now have the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop services up and running already.
With the Northumberland Line recently announcing 500,000 passengers, less than a year after opening, there is clearly a huge demand for rail travel in the area, and while Newcastle and destinations beyond is clearly a principal major flow, there is almost certainly a strong demand to head north into North Northumberland and Scotland, with places such as Alnwick, and Berwick being popular ‘day out’ destinations from towns like Blyth, as well as connections into Scotland.
Our petition for this route now stands at a strong 854 signatures since its launch in February, and 1000 signatures likely to be reached before Blyth Bebside station opens, lets hope that this potential expansion of passenger services can be considered as a ‘next step’ for the Northumberland Line?
A recent announcement from Northumberland County Council puts the passenger use of the Northumberland Line at 500,000 since opening in December 2024.
Facebook update for the Northumberland Line 5.8.25 by Northumberland County Council
This is fantastic news for the reopening scheme, which has achieved this half million passenger figure despite still only having three of the six planned stations open as of today, with Ashington, Newsham, and Seaton Delaval serving passengers, witb Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Northumberland Park yet to be completed and opened for traffic.
Completion of Stations and Service Expansion?
The next station due to be completed is Blyth Bebside station, an announcement on which will hopefully be made soon as opening is anticipated for late summer/early autumn 2025; Bedlington, and Northumberland Park are now not due to open until early 2026.
Seeing these stations completed will be fantastic for the Northumberland Line, but given the huge popularity and success of the route, thoughts should also be focussed on the next phases of the route to expand it and serve more places.
Northumberland Coast Loop proposal, using 5 of the 6 Northumberland Line stations (all except Ashington), and offering a connection northwards onto the ECML via Bedlington and Pegswood.
The Northumberland Coast Loop could be an obvious ‘next step’; unlike the proposal to head to Newbiggin, where track has been lifted for decades, the line from Bedlington to Pegswood via Choppington has been in regular use several times per week for the North Blyth to Fort William ‘Alcan’ freight train, as well as it’s past use for coal trains bound for Blyth Power Station/Port of Blyth until this traffic ceased, and for occasional diversions around Morpeth as and when required.
While this route has never before had a passenger service, due to only being completed in its present form c.1980, 16 years after passenger trains on the old ‘Blyth and Tyne Lines’ ceased in 1964, the reopening of stations has changed that situation dramatically, meaning a route between Newcastle and Berwick/Edinburgh via Bedlington would now have stations to call at.
This route would vastly improve public transport connectivity in Northumberland, giving faster, more direct rail connections between the large population centres in the south east of Northumberland and settlements/visitor attractions in the north of Northumberland.
A petition on Change.org to support this route now has 852 signatures, showing the high level of support this proposal has gained over the last couple of years that it has been put forward.
A recent article from The Chronicle ‘Upgrades to two notorious A19 roundabouts would cost up to £775m’ has shed some light on the vast costs of upgrading the Seaton Burn junction of the A1 and A19, alongside the A19 and A189 interchange at Moor Farm, with Option A (fully grade separated junctions) coming at a cost of approximately £775m. The cheaper option E (the only one with a positive benefit:cost ratio, meaning it would generate an economic return on investment, the others would be loss making), with altered kerb lines, better signage and road markings would cost £300m, about the same as it cost to reopen the 18 miles of track for the Northumberland Line and open six stations along its length, and had a clear positive benefit:cost ratio of 1.5 (meaning for every £1 spent, £1.50 in economic gain is expected in return).
Proposed £800m to £1,275m spend for A1 & A19 roads in Northumberland?
Together with the long proposed dualling of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham, recently costed at £500m, means that an expected spend on just two roundabouts and 13 miles of dualling in Northumberland could cost between £800m and £1,275m for both schemes (A1 dualling and A19 roundabouts) combined.
Roads are, however, only one mode of transport, and surely the alternatives to road transport should also be considered, especially as these schemes are near to existing passenger railways that are already busy and popular routes, which would certainly benefit from further enhancements, so could the money be better placed by improving the railway and leaving the roads as they are now?
The A19 north of the Tyne and its connection to the A1 is largely mirrored by the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop (N.C.L.) which passes below the A19 at Holystone, with Northumberland Park station almost inmediately adjacent to this road, and Seaton Delaval station close-by to Moor Farm Roundabout.
The connection of the N.C.L. back onto the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth mirrors the connection of the A19 and A1 at Seaton Burn, with the option to head both north and south using Morpeth North Junction and Morpeth Junction (crossing Coopies Lane near Morpeth station respectively).
With a very similar rail and road layout, there is perhaps a unique opportunity to compare them side by side for relative cost vs benefit.
Comparing rail and road options
Please note that these are simplistic approximations based on the overall cost of the Northumberland Line at £298.5m, at 18 miles in length, with six new stations, hence decimal values for stations.
At the low end figure of £800m (A1 dualling + Option E), that would be equivalent to 2.6x the Northumberland Line, or a similar freight railway 48.6 miles in length being reopened for passenger traffic with 15.6 stations along its length.
The high end figure of £1,275m (A1 + Option A) would be equivalent to 4.2x the Northumberland Line, upgrading a 75.6 mile long freight line with 25.2 stations along its length.
As can be seen from the above calculations, every £1 spent on rail gives you more than the same £1 spent on roads, especially considering almost all rail projects have a far stronger benefit:cost ratio compared to road schemes that tend to be loss-making.
Northumberland Coast Loop rail route a better option than A1 dualling and A19 roundabout rebuild for £800m to £1,275m?
The proposed route of the Northumberland Coast Loop between Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Berwick-Upon-TweedRail and Metro Map surrounding Newcastle Upon Tyne, the Northumberland Coast Loop would start at (or pass through) Newcastle Central, head north east along the Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington, before cutting back west to Pegswood, and heading north to Berwick Upon Tweed and beyond. Section of the above map showing the relationship between the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop, the T&W Metro Yellow Roite and the existing ECML.
The Northumberland Coast Loop route could be a good alternative to the proposals for both the A1 dualling and the A19 roundabout rebuilds, as it would offer a better rail connection between North Tyneside and south east Northumberland with Scotland, and if the route was extended south beyond Newcastle, specifically along the Durham Coast, it would provide a parallel rail route to the A19 almost along its length.
Let’s assume that a budget of £300m (Option E for the two A19 Roundabouts) was allocated to rail improvements instead.
Bedlington to Pegswood by rail for £30m to £83m (max of £100m)?
The line linking Bedlington to Pegswood is only around 5 miles in length, and largely single track; a similar upgrade to the Northumberland Line which had a £298.5m cost ÷ 18 miles of track = £16.6m per mile inc stations, would give an approximate cost of c.£83m, which would cover doubling sections of the route (perhaps almost in entirety given the very rural nature for the most part), and may even allow for rebuild of Choppington station alongside the line), and could allow level crossing upgrades/replacement by a bridge if required for the A1068 at Choppington too.
If Choppington station wasn’t initially included, then this cost may fall from c.£83m to c.£73m (assuming single track station at c.£10m cost), or to c.£63m (assuming two track station at c.£20m).
The replacement of Newsham level crossing with a bridge for the A1061 cost a reported £33m, so assuming the level crossing on the A1068 was to remain at Choppington might further reduce the cost to around c.£30m to improve this line to a similar standard to the recently Northumberland Line, in terms of additional double tracking and linespeed enhancements (allowing trains to travel faster).
In a worst case scenario, a £100m budget (assuming full doubling of the line, building of a two track station at Choppington, and replacement of the A1068 level crossing at Choppington with a grade separation) would seem to be a reasonable figure.
All of the above would need to be professionally costed and assessed of course, but it seems a likely estimate based on nearby, recent rail infrastructure works for the Northumberland Line.
Newcastle – Bedlington and Pegswood – Edinburgh rail improvements with remaining £270m to £1,175m?
Wider work to both the Northumberland Line and East Coast Main Line (ECML) might also be required to enable more rail services, for example the Newcastle Central Station to Bedlington Junction stretch of line might require some further capacity enhancement, as might the ECML from Morpeth North Junction to Edinburgh Waverley.
Assuming an overall budget of £300m for the route between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Bedlington, and between £30m-£100m being spent on the Bedlington Junction to Morpeth North Junction section, that would, depending on costs, leave between £270m (assuming approx £30m to improve Bedlington Junction to Morpeth North Junction), and £200m in a ‘worst case’ scenario.
For example, would relocating some stations on the ECML such as Alnmouth onto the loops at Wooden, which would allow stopping trains to be overtaken by fast, through expresses offer a good capacity increase for relatively low cost (approx £20m assumed cost for new station to be built whilst current Alnmouth Station remains open)?
Similarly, the reopening of Belford station, again proposed to be on the loops there rather than against the mainlines, could allow slower stopping trains (both semi-fast and local) to be overtaken by faster through expresses, again at a cost of c.£20m, which together with Alnmouth could still leave a potential budget of £160m to £230m assuming the modest overall investment of £300m into the ECML/Northumberland Coast Loop rail routes between Newcastle and Edinburgh. This assuming a low budget of £300m (similar to the spend on the Northumberland Line).
In contrast, if the amount of money that many advocate to spend on roads such as the dualling of the A1 and roundabout rebuilds on the A19 (c.£1,275m in total) was instead invested into the these two rail routes between Newcastle and Edinburgh, the results could be truly transformational.
Spending a billion pounds or more on rail in Northumberland and southern Scotland could truly transform services not only within the region, but also nationally, giving better Edinburgh – London connectivity to compete more effectively with domestic air travel, begin moving an increasing share of freight by rail, as well as decarbonisation of rail travel through more and better electrification schemes.
The Northumberland Line has proven that rail investment in Northumberland is money well spent, and as a region with a rich railway history, dating back to Beaumont at Bedlington in 1609 with early waggonways, wouldn’t it be a wonderful way to recognise that railway heritage by reviving rail as front and centre of transport in the 21st Century?
This represents a signing rate of about five persons per day, and if that rate continues, it’ll reach 1000 signatures on or about 200 days since launch; the 31st August 2025.
This date also happens to coincide with the potential opening of Blyth Bebside station, which based on the Northumberland Line webpage, is due around the same time (late August/early September).
Why are Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park the proposed semi-fast stops?
Route map of the Northumberland Coast Loop, showing Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park as semi-fast stops.
Of the five current stations open/under construction on the ‘Loop’ part of the route using the majority of the Northumberland Line (all of them except Ashington due to the route and track layout), the stations at Blyth Bebside and Northumberland Park are perhaps the most likely stations to see a semi-fast service stop.
Why Blyth Bebside?
This station is sited very close to the A193 Cowpen Road, the key northern access into the town of Blyth, Northumberland.
This route is point of concentration for several important bus routes (1, 2, & X9), it is also sat almost adjacent to the junction of the A189 Spine Road and A193, and finally is also located near to many active travel routes (walking, cycling etc) that link Blyth, Bedlington and Cramlington together, such as the National Cycle Network Route 1, which is a 1264 mile/2034 km route from Dover to the Highlands of Scotland, that higs the East Coast along much of its length.
Blyth Bebside is also connected by much more local routes such as Hathery Lane, which, with some modest work, could provide an excellent connection to Cramlington for walkers and cyclists.
Blyth Bebside is a potentially much less constrained station compared to that at Bedlington, which perhaps is the more obvious station due to the junction, but is constrained by the junction being at one end, and a level crossing at the other, meaning that longer trains would likely have to overhang either the junction (most likely scenario) or the level crossing (less likely to be permitted).
A longer train standing at Blyth Bebside, especially with the new location is unlikely to be foul of the level crossing at Bebside, allowing traffic to flow, and there are no railway junctions there to worry about either.
Blyth Bebside is also preferred over Newsham as it is more readily accessible from other towns, such as Bedlington, Ashington and more; as well as avoiding as much as possible the ‘wrong way’ travel of going south along the Northumberland Line from a station such as Ashington, through Bedlington and Blyth Bebside, to then change to another service and head north again through Blyth Bebside and Bedlington again en-route to Pegswood, or vice versa.
Why Northumberland Park?
The station at Northumberland Park is likely, once open, to become a major interchange for the Tyne and Wear Metro system, allowing faster trips to places like Whitley Bay, Cullercoats, and Tynemouth, as well as serving major business parks like Cobalt, and the wider area of North Tyneside, and once open, it will become the only National Rail station within North Tyneside itself.
With this petition having launched on 16th February 2025, 161 days ago, it gives an average signature rate of 4.9 signatures per day.
A special thanks go to the 13 promoters of the petition who together have put forward a total of £113 towards promoting the petition on change.org, thank you!
This is in just 164 days since the petition was launched on 13th February 2025, meaning a daily average of just over five people per day signing the petition. Thanks everyone for your support and clear demand for this route to be established.
A special thank you to the 20 promoters of the petition who have donated £78 in total too.
Please keep sharing this petition with friends and family to keep the momentum up!
The petition has performed strongly since is launch on the 13th February 2025, 155 days ago, meaning an average rate of approximately 5 signatures per day (rounded to nearest whole figure).
This means that if this pace is maintained, in around 50 days, our next landmark target of 1000 signatures will be reached.
Thank you to all who have signed so far, but immense thanks to all those who’ve chipped in financially via Change.org to help promote the petition, with 17 promoters contributing a total of £71 towards the petition via Change.org
Thank you all very much and hopefully we’ll hit 1000 in the coming weeks!
Why run a rail route between Newcastle, Bedlington, and on to Edinburgh?
The Northumberland Line, running effectively a shuttle service between Ashington and Newcastle Central, has proven massively successful, with over 400,000 passengers to date, despite only half of the stations being open as yet, with Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Northumberland Park still under construction.
This link between the coalfield towns of south east Northumberland and Newcastle has long been desired, and shows the massive latent demand for a good rail service into Newcastle, with many also likely to be travelling beyond ‘the Toon’ too, with easy interchange to other services heading east to Sunderland and down the Durham Coast, south to Durham, Darlington, York, and more, or west to Hexham, and Carlisle.
Going south to head north?
From Newcastle, it is also possible to head north, through Morpeth and on into North Northumberland and Scotland, with cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and more on this route north.
From being a lifelong resident of Northumberland, and having lived for my first quarter of a century in the SE corner of the county, there is plenty of traffic headed northwards from the area, with families spread along the length of the coast, people commuting to and from work in both directions, and also for leisure, trips up to places like Alnwick, Berwick, and more in the north of the county, and cities such as Edinburgh, as wider Scotland too being large markets.
My own trip from Newsham to Alnmouth on 15th April 2025.
That being said, whilst it is now possible to do, and is still an improvement in journey times by using the new rail link; the idea of heading south from the new Northumberland Line stations, into to Newcastle and then head north again is illogical, and also incurs a double time penalty, the first from travelling the wrong way into Newcastle, but also a second penalty of time due to the waiting time in Central Station for the connecting service heading north.
Cramlington or Morpeth to catch northbound trains?
The other option is to catch northbound ECML services further north, at stations such as Cramlington or Morpeth, however, the relatively poor service pattern at Cramlington is a limitation on its usefulness (most trains terminate at Morpeth, so involving a change of train again there), and Morpeth can be an awkward station to reach, buses are not particularly great at interchanging at Morpeth Railway Station, often requiring a fair walk between bus stop and station or vice versa, and from towns such as Blyth, a hypothetical trip to Berwick would have a longer bus trip (40mins+ on the No.2 bus) from Blyth to Morpeth than the rail trip from Morpeth to Berwick (approx 30mins) would take!
In the absence of stations on the lines around Bedlington, Blyth et al, services calling at Morpeth was reasonable provision for that area of the county, but now that stations are reopening on this route, with the added advantage of a new curve opened in 1980 at Morpeth, a direct route is now possible for the first time, and in my view is now ready to be used to make travel to, from and within Northumberland far easier and more convenient, avoiding the need to travel further by road, or to change trains at Morpeth.
Direct trains Newcastle to Edinburgh via Bedlington
In contrast, a train leaving Newcastle could run up the newly reopened Northumberland Line, at the same timings that the N’land Line trains run at, before cutting back across to the East Coast Main Line (ECML) using the existing link between Bedlington and Pegswood (used as part of the route for the regular ‘Alcan’ train between North Blyth and Fort William), and be headed for Scotland.
The Bedlington to Pegswood link line would remove the need to go south into Newcastle to head north for North Northumberland and Scotland.
The Seven Counties Rambler
The last passenger carrying train, to my knowledge, to run over the this route was the SRPS Railtours charter train ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ on Saturday 8th March 2025.
Route map of ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ from the souvenir brochure on the tour, clearly showing the northern link from Bedlington to Pegswood and on towards Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Edinburgh.
The running times for this train can seen below for an indication of journey times, but was based on a pair of Class 37 diesels hauling vintage carriages, not modern units, so the times are likely to be significantly generous to ensure keeping time.
As an example, Newcastle to Bedlington, even factoring in station stops, does not take 39¼ minutes for more modern Northumberland Line trains, but for this fairly slow train to travel from Bedlington to Morpeth North Junction in 13 minutes indicates how quick it potentially could be if operated with modern units and after receiving upgrades on the line.
From the RAILWAYDATA.CO.UK page for Morpeth, it can be seen that Edinburgh is the second-most popular destination, with 36,429 journeys recorded in the 2023/24 operating year after travel to Newcastle.
It is not unreasonable to assume that a significant percentage of these passengers originated in nearby towns such as Bedlington, Blyth, Ashington etc, so a new direct service via the Northumberland Coast Loop might shift some of this traffic away from Morpeth towards the proposed stop at Blyth Bebside, which for many passengers will be both closer and more convenient due to easy access via the A189 Spine Road, and the large, free car park, as well as easier bus, taxi and for many close-by residents, shorter walking and cycling distances.
In the larger data available from this website, other stations in North Northumberland and Scotland such as Berwick features strongly (5,920 passengers), Alnmouth (5,822), and Glasgow (Queen Street & Central) bringing in 3,938, with other stations bringing in smaller volumes.
The Northumberland Line does, however illustrate another factor, that there is potentially a large and untapped latent demand; people who are either travelling by other means currently (such as driving), or indeed may not be travelling at all, so a new rail route may well do far better than simply sharing out existing traffic by actually adding new rail users into the mix too, so a share of the above could very well represent a minimum flow, not a maximum.
The TPE Nova 1 fleet a good fit for the N.C.L?
PLEASE NOTE: This fleet and operator is purely used as an illustrative example, any operator or rolling stock would be welcome to operate this service.
The five car Nova 1 fleet (or similar) operated by Transpennine Express (or other TOC) could be a good candidate for operating the Northumberland Coast Loop; these five cR Hitachi 80x units ply daily between Newcastle and Edinburgh, their relatively short train lengths being ideal for the short platforms of the Northumberland Line (these units also call at Chester-Le-Street which has 110m platforms, very similar in size to the N’land Line, and units presumably are fitted with selective door opening to ensure only doors safely on the platform will open, the rest remaining closed).
Example of SDO by TPE when serving Chester-Le-Street?
This is in addition to these units being 125mph capable bi-mode units, meaning that they can help maintain schedules on the ECML, but could then come off the wires to run around the B&T lines that form the Northumberland Coast Loop before rejoining the route.
They would also provide a useful boost to capacity on the Northumberland Line, which particularly on major events in Newcastle has been known to struggle, but with 342 seats, each train would provide more than 4-car 158 sets, which are sometimes challenging to provide.
In addition, the spaces for bicycles would be useful for cyclists undertaking the coastal national cycle route, which the Northumberland Coast Loop follows along its length from Berwick to Blyth.
Costs
The existing link line between Bedlington Junction and Morpeth North Junction is already in regular use for railfreight, and is a recognised diversionary route, and alongside the Northumberland Line scheme has seen level crossings such as that at Choppington upgraded with new equipment, as well as being used regularly for stakeholder trains, diverted biomass trains, and railtours so it can be reasonably assumed to be in an overall good condition, and there require little to no extra investment to bring a limited service into use.
At a worst case scenario, a similar upgrade to the Northumberland Line might be required, such as partial (was double track from Choppington station to Bedlington historically), or full doubling of the line. The Northumberland Line cost an average of c.£16.6m per mile (£298.5m overall cost ÷ 18 miles of route), but these costs were inclusive of resignalling, level crossing upgrades, the new Newsham bridge, and six new stations, many with large car parks and complex works).
At 4.78 miles in length (7.7km) between the two junctions, this would result in a ballpark high end figure of £79.7m (4.8 miles of route × £16.6m/mile), but could potentially include the cost for Choppington Station (approx £10m for single platform, £20m for two platform), as well as the potential cost of replacing the A1068 Choppington Level Crossing with a bridge (road dropping below railway the most likely option), which based on cost of Newsham Bridge, could cost around c.£30m.
Taking the c.£10m-20m cost of Choppington Station, and the c.£30m cost A1068 bridge replacement for the level crossing might reduce costs by £40m-50m, bringing this 4.8 mile link line to a cost of around £30m without these add on costs, which could be delivered later in the case of Choppington station, or for the A1068 level crossing, retention of the existing crossing may be acceptable.
As can be seen above, the petition for the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop rail services between Newcastle Upon Tyne, along the Northumberland Line to Bedlington, then back onto the East Coast Main Line (ECML) near Pegwood, to then head to Edinburgh has now reached 666 signatures since 13th February 2025.
This petition was launched 148 days ago, meaning that it has achieved an average of 4.5 signatures every day since then.
Route map of the Northumberland Coast Loop showing the existing link between Bedlington and Pegswood which would allow an alternative route between Newcastle and Berwick/Edinburgh via Bedlington.
If that rate of signatures being added continues at the current rate, the next landmark of 1000 signatures should be reached around the end of September 2025.
The Northumberland Coast Loop 