The petition for a new Newcastle-Upon-Tyne – Blyth, Northumberland, and Edinburgh, Scotland rail service continues to do well with 650 signatures to date.
If you haven’t already, please sign the petition here: https://chng.it/g6FSQWLsnt
The petition for a better bus service running between the Northumberland Towns of Alnwick, via Alnmouth Railway Station, to Amble is gaining serious momentum, with 700 signatures now reached as of 8.7.25, with that number steadily growing day by day.
If you’d like to sign it, please do so here: https://www.change.org/AlnwickAlnmouthAmbleBusMeetsTrainCampaign
So what could such a service look like in practice?
The route would follow that of the existing X20 service operated by Arriva, which mostly follows the A1068 from Amble to Alnwick Bus Station, with a small detour to serve Alnmouth Railway Station (Curly Lane), this route is accessible by all buses, and commonly operated using double deckers, so should not present any issues for more services or different bus operators serving the route.
There is no issue with this route, so if this service is either improved, or an additional service was to run on this route, it would present no objections.
One of the two key problems with the existing bus provision is the service span (time of the first bus until the last bus).
At present, the northbound bus from Amble only reaches Curly lane at 07:04, too late for many of the early morning trains that leave Alnmouth, with the first as early as 06:22 headed towards Newcastle.
The 07:04 bus from Curly Lane then runs to Alnwick, and forms the return service southwards, meaning that from Alnwick, the first bus across to Alnmouth doesn’t arrive until 07:41, over 79mins (1hr 19min) after the first departing train.
This means that, by bus, it is impossible to reach a large number of rail services, which are outlined below.
A simple solution to this problem is to run the first X20 bus around 1 hour earlier from Amble, so that it would arrive at Curly Lane at around 06:04, allowing ample time to meet the 06:22 service towards Newcastle and London.
At the Alnwick end of the route, a first bus should leave Alnwick no later than 06:00 (ideally around 05:55) so that by the time it arrives in Alnmouth around 15minutes later (06:10 – 06:15) it allows plenty of time to meet the first southbound train at 06:22.
In short, an X20 route bus leaving Amble at 05:55 and another at 05:55 leaving Alnwick would meet the first train quite happily.
The last buses to serve Alnmouth Station are OK, as they run long after the last trains have arrived at Alnmouth, however they follow the often meandering route of the X18, not the express X20, so extending the X20 into late evening alongside the X18 would perhaps be preferable.
The second key issue for buses to and from Alnmouth Station from Alnwick and Amble is their frequency, which is not quite hourly (as can be seen from the timetable, the services ‘drift’ on mins after the hour over the course of the day, meaning that there is a gap of more than an hour between some buses.
To resolve this, a fixing of times to ‘xx mins past the hour’ throughout the day for the existing service would be preferred, to ensure an hourly clockface departure/arrival time throughout the day.
In addition, a second service set exactly 30mins (yy mins past the hour) later would mean than in a worst-case scenario of a ‘just missed’ bus, the next one will be along in 30 minutes.
Therefore the fix for the A, A, & A ‘Bus Meets Train’ service is a simple one, run the first buses earlier, and run two buses per hour on the route of the X20 rather than one during peak hours (06:00 to 19:30). Nothing needing to be built, just running buses better to improve connectivity.
Perhaps the use of branded buses for local attractions, such as Arriva 7542 (YX17 NNT) in ‘The Poison Garden’ livery could be great moving ambassadors for the route too, and perhaps, if Alnwick follows Keswick with a ‘virtual railway station’, then maybe a rail operator such as LNER, TPE, CrossCountry etc could similarly brand one or more of their trains?
Please see the screenshots below for more details on upcoming SENRUG meetings, which if you can, please support by attending them if possible.
The first is tomorrow, Tuesday 8th July 2025 in Morpeth at Morpeth Town Hall starting at 19:30.
The second is in Berwick-Upon-Tweed on Monday 14th July 2025, held in the Town Council Offices on 82-88 Marygate, starting at 18:00.
If you can attend these meetings, please do so to support these campaigns for better rail services to, from, and within Northumberland. I can’t make the meeting on Tuesday 14th July due to other family commitments, but hopefully I might be able to attend the Berwick meeting on Monday 14th July – possibly see you there?
Broadly speaking, I am in full support for almost all proposals for the rail improvements put forward by SENRUG on their campaigns page of their website (https://www.senrug.co.uk/our-campaigns).
Indeed the Northumberland Coast Loop would share a large part one of the proposed extensions to the Northumberland Line for a Bedlington – Choppington – Morpeth rail service which is put forward by SENRUG, and which I have recently launched a petition to help the case for reopening of Choppington Station, which at the time of writing has 55 signatures of support.
The key difference is on proposals between the two campaigns for a new Newcastle – Bedlington – Widdrington – Berwick Rail Service.
Both routes are identical south of Bedlington and north of Widdrington, the key difference being the choice of route between Bedlington and Widdrington.
Rail traffic at present between SE Northumberland and Scotland is only the twice or thrice weekly ‘Alcan’ service between North Blyth and Fort William on the West Highland Line, with occasional passenger use by a very small number of railtours (one since the start of the year, and a second due in August 2025).
The Northumberland Coast Loop proposal is to use the existing line from Bedlington, through Choppington, then Pegswood, and onto Widdrington to provide the through route, as demonstrated by ‘The Seven Counties Rambler’ railtour in March 2025.
Using existing track, this route should be faster and cheaper to implement, but does omit the town of Ashington, though Morpeth could be served by a new station on the Morpeth North Curve if desired via this route, which runs on the edge of Coopies Lane Industrial Estate. This current route is quite underused at present, compared to a busy past serving Blyth Power Station and Port of Blyth with coal trains, a traffic now long consigned to history, but could be used to deliver a new passenger service quite quickly if desired.
In contrast, the SENRUG proposals are for a reopening and re-engineered ‘Butterwell Route‘, which would use the Northumberland Line from Bedlington to Ashington, then continue north using the disused line through Ashington Community Woods, pass nearby the village of Linton Colliery, and require a new curve to link this industrial branchline to the East Coast Main Line (ECML) facing north (it connects currently facing south towards Pegswood/Morpeth).
This route would include Ashington on a new coastal rail route between Newcastle and Berwick-Upon-Tweed, but would require a line disused for over 20 years and heavily overgrown to be brought back into use, as well as substantial new engineering for a curve and junction to be created near to Ulgham to join the ECML.
In my view, the N.C.L. route could be made a reality far quicker by simply using the existing line, already open for regular traffic, to create this new Newcastle – Bedlington – Berwick – Edinburgh rail service, and would enhance the range of services offered to a reopened Choppington station too.
I would not oppose the Ashington – Widdrington route being developed, indeed I would welcome it; but starting a coastal rail service via Pegswood, Choppington, and Bedlington seems the more logical starting point to establish the market between SE Northumberland, North Northumberland and Scotland, and helping to build the case for a new link north of Ashington thereafter?
In recent days, the petition for the Newcastle – Northumberland Park – Blyth Bebside – Edinburgh rail service has gained a lot of ground with 643 signatures to date, if you haven’t already, please pop your signature on here: https://chng.it/wbhpn9ffpJ
Thanks, RH.
Our petition has made a signifant jump in recent days to 627 signatures, but to reach the major milestone of 1000 signatures, an additional 373 supporters of the Northumberland Coast Loop are needed.
Ideally this petition will reach 1000 before the first anniversary of the Northumberland Line on 15th December 2025.
If you would like to help the campaign reach this landmark, please click here: https://chng.it/wbhpn9ffpJ
Massive thanks to all who have signed so far, but lets keep up the momentum!
As we start July, a quick update on the Northumberland Coast Loop campaign, with thoughts on the long history of rail in Northumberland, and its bearing on its future…
The petition continues to do well, with 587 signatures since it’s launch in February 2025, hopefully 600 signatures will be reached in the coming days, if you haven’t already signed it, please do so here: https://chng.it/wbhpn9ffpJ
On Thursday 26th June, one of Northern’s Class 158 trains (158 844) was named ‘The Northumbrian’, and adorned with artwork depicting landmarks, famous persons such as George Stephenson, and more from Northumberland and the wider North East on the vehicle sides.
This article in The Chronicle also states that the Northumberland Line continues to achieve huge passenger numbers, having now topped 400,000 a sign indeed of the massive success of this route despite delays and as yet still only partially open.
Once the remaining stations at Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Northumberland Park are opened, it is likely to see a further surge in passenger use, perhaps a million passengers per year might be possible?
The enormous success of the Northumberland Line does beg the question of expansion at the northern end back onto the East Coast Main Line (ECML), and enhancment of the ECML towards Edinburgh as alternatives to the massive proposed investments into Moor Farm Roundabout on the A19/A189 and Dualling of the A1 north of Morpeth.
This question was posed in a recent article in the Northumberland Gazette, where North East Sustainable Transport argue that these schemes will bring little real benefit but will add to pollution problems, which especially in the case of the A1 dualling has already been modelled by the Government itself.
Net Zero North East states on their homepage that transport accounts for 30% of North East Greenhouse gas emissions, and Philip Meikle, Transport Strategy Director at Transport North East is quoted as saying (image below).
The Northumberland Coast Loop could work well to provide a direct rail route in parallel to the road network, with the Northumberland Line being parallel to the A19 and A189, stations such as Northumberland Park being adjacent to the A19, and Blyth Bebside adjacent to the A189, and the existing link between Bedlington and Pegwood offering a direct connection onto the A1/ECML corridor heading northwards into North Northumberland and Scotland.
With modal shift of passengers and freight onto the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop route (and other rail routes such as the ECML via Morpeth and Cramlington too), and away from road transport, the traffic volumes, and consequent pressure on junctions such as Moor Farm Roundabout and routes like the A1 in Northumberland will be reduced, as will emissions, as will the reduction in road accidents, as rail travel is by far a safer mode for both passengers and freight.
Let’s put more travel to, from, and within Northumberland onto rail, not road.
As can be seen from the Northumberland Line investment, rail travel has proven to be highly popular and attractive, with a clear, high, latent demand for it, let’s enable it further by continuing to invest in Northumberlands rail network, adding new connections such as the Northumberland Coast Loop, which would enable a direct rail journey from Blyth to Berwick-Upon-Tweed or beyond.
It would indeed be a fitting honour in the Railway200 year for areas like the Blyth Valley to be better served by rail; not only as a general improvement to transport service, but also to reflect the long railway heritage of the Blyth Valley; which beginning with Huntingdon Beaumont in 1609, who introduced waggonway technology from his native Nottinghamshire, through to John Birkinshaw, who is 1819 patented a new ‘malleable’ iron rail, which was used for two-thirds of the Stockton and Darlington Railway due to its superiority compared to cast iron.
The Northumberland Coast Loop ties together many different elements of railway heritage, but also of its future; railways evolved in Britain from the earlier waggonways, which developed largely in the North East as a means to get coal from pit to port, but now can play a vital role in decarbonisation and modal shift away from road transport.
The introduction by Beaumont of waggonways in the Blyth Valley in 1609 was pivotal in their wider adoption and continual improvement around the North East, with a near direct path from the Beaumont Waggonway, through major waggonways like the Tanfield Waggonway (now part of the Tanfield Railway, itself celebrating 300 years this year) through to the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, with Bedlington Rail being a key part of the success of that line, and then the wider growth of the rail network in the UK after that time.
George Stephenson was very much born into a waggonway world, by the time of his birth in 1781, the Causey Arch, the worlds oldest railway bridge, had stood for 56 years by that time, and Huntingdon Beaumont had been dead for 157 years (died in 1624).
George Stephenson wasn’t a sole ‘great man’; there were many of his peers, both local and far distant such as Trevithick, who also helped develop the humble waggonway into the modern railway we would recognise and actually still use today, such as the East Coast Mainline between Newcastle and Berwick, that George set out.
The role of the railways hasn’t ended though despite the near end of coal trains in the area and UK overall, indeed recent figures suggest that rail travel has recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic, if not already exceeded it, and railways could play a vital role in decarbonisation of the transport system, with even ageing diesel trains still more efficient than cars.
The book below ‘How The Railways Will Fix The Future‘, written by rail engineer Gareth Dennis, is an excellent source on how putting rail at the heart of a better public transport and active travel system could help to solve a multitude problems both locally in places like Northumberland, but also the wider UK as well as worldwide.
It is well worth a read!
It is clear from the success of the Northumberland Line that investment into rail is a sound one, and for Northumberland, would represent building on over 400 years of success on rails, lets take the railways forward for another 400 years by putting the investment in today!
This blog post from Bus and Train User states that the Northumberland Line, opened in December 2024 has just surpassed 350,000 passengers since opening, a huge success for the new line, despite only three of the six stations being open.
These strong figures suggest that 500,000 or more could be reached by the first anniversary of the line on 15th December 2025.
The Northumberland Coast Loop is a proposed expansion of the Northumberland Line by using the line that links Bedlington directly to Pegswood via Hepscott.
This route uses the relatively little known Morpeth North Curve, which passes just east of Hepscott Care Centre under the A196, passes alongside Coca Cola’s Morpeth factory and Storage24 before joining the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth North Junction, not far from Pegswood Viaduct.
This route would offer a new, direct connection between the large south-east Northumberland towns such as Blyth to places like Alnmouth (for Alnwick, Amble etc), Berwick-Upon-Tweed and beyond to places like Edinburgh.
The petition for this proposed route is continuing to perform strongly, with 561 signatures to date. If you’d like to add your signature, please do so here: https://chng.it/zThXj8HBpY
A recent BBC article is discussing the potential need to transport 100 lorry loads per day of domestic waste from Scotland into England, to places such as Northumberland, Cumbria, and perhaps as far as Manchester for processing due to a lack of capacity to deal with it in Scotland.
Even though this is hopefully a short-lived issue until suitable incinerator capacity is built out in Scotland; hopefully the transport solution to get the waste into England is by rail and not by road, requiring fewer drivers and less HGV traffic on routes such as the A1.
The so-called ‘Binliner’ trains are nothing new, the concept of refuse trains dating back as far as 1977, as this ‘Freight Focus: The Fragrant World of the ‘Binliner” goes into further detail.
Lets hope that if Scottish waste needs to come into England, it is put on rail, not on the roads.
Today, Sunday 15th June 2025, marks 100 days since an early morning start at Linlithgow station on the 8th March, and an excellent railtour by SRPS Railtours around southern Scotland and northern England.
The final leg of this railtour, was of particular interest to this campaign as it follows the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop route; running from Newcastle Upon Tyne, up the Northumberland Line to Bedlington, then taking the Hepscott Line, round the Morpeth North Curve, and rejoins the East Coast Main Line (ECML), to head back to Edinburgh.
It was great to travel the line after seeing the ‘Bound for Craigy’ railtour, which ran over the same route on 18th March 2017 (almost eight years earlier), which was a large part of the inspiration for this route becoming a regular passenger route.
For me, the railtour ended at Linlithgow station, where I then travelled home back to Northumberland that night.
This railtour was a great experience, with great company from fellow passengers, and a very happy and helpful on-board crew, as well as getting a great day to enjoy fantastic scenery while being hauled by heritage locomotives in heritage carriages — brilliant just about sums it up!
Since that day back on 8th March, the Northumberland Coast Loop campaign has taken a number of steps forward, and hopefully moving ever closer to the day when a routine service starts over the route?
So far, the rail service petition for a new Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh stands at 553 signatures, itself 123 days since launch today. This petition will run until a service begins, but if you haven’t already signed it, please do so via the link above.
This route, like the Northumberland Line is likely to be a huge success; lets get it opened up sooner rather than later!
It could, alongside existing Northumberland Line trains add valuable extra capacity to the Northumberland Line (more seats from Newcastle Central onto the Northumberland Line), as well as create new, direct links from these new stations into North Northumberland and Scotland.
Please sign the petition here: https://chng.it/zThXj8HBpY, and if you can, especially so if you live in the area, please write to your MP, local County Councillors etc, to express your support for the route to be opened up.
In the last few days, the Coldstream Guards, in their 375th anniversary year, travelled from London King’s Cross to Berwick Upon Tweed to parade around the town, as they have the freedom of the town to do so.
Watch this clip from BFBS Forces News for more details
What is interesting to note is that travel by rail was preferable for the event due to its speed; making a London – Berwick – London round trip possible in a single day, and the opportunity for the 120 Guardsmen to sit back and relax in comfort, and catching up on much deserved rest during their rail trip to Berwick and back to London.
This illustrates the key role that rail can play in linking very distant parts of the UK together in a speedy and efficient way, with Berwick Upon Tweed about as far as possible to get from London whilst still remaining in England (but only just!).
Whilst the Guardsmen obviously took the fastest direct train from London to Berwick, going via Cramlington and Morpeth; the Northumberland Coast Loop would allow Berwick to be reached directly by rail from other places within Northumberland such as Blyth, very much as an addition to other rail services, and not as a replacement for any of them — expansion of the mainline to accomodate more and varied services is the key to success.
While Blyth doesn’t presently have a direct passenger service towards Berwick, one is possible if the proposed Northumberland Coast Loop was to be implemented. Trains departing Newcastle could run up the Northumberland Line as far as Bedlington (making stops at Northumberland Park, and Blyth Bebside for semi-fast trains, all stops for local services), then take the existing line west through Hepscott to rejoin the mainline at Morpeth North Junction, then, pointing towards Pegswood, they would run north towards Berwick and Edinburgh.
If you support the idea of a Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh route, please sign the petition 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/10/679068674?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%3A10
A quick update on the Northumberland Coast Loop petitions to start with:
The petition for a rail service on the Newcastle – Bedlington – Edinburgh route has now reached 544 signatures, and continues to grow daily, thank you to all who’ve signed so far and if you haven’t already, please sign in using the link above.
This route is intended to complement existing ECML services between Newcastle and Edinburgh via Morpeth and Cramlington, with the ‘loop’ via Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and Northumberland Park intended to better connect these large communities well to the east of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) into North Northumberland and Scotland directly, rather than having to connect via Newcastle or Morpeth.
The next petition is a for a dedicated ‘bus meets train’ shuttle serving the non-rail connected towns of Alnwick and Amble, which is currently standing at 465 signatures.
This service would aim to better connect the towns of Alnwick and Amble, both some miles away from the ECML to west and east respectively by providing a better bus service linking both towns to Alnmouth Station. Work is ongoing on this in the background, so watch this space!
This petition to reopen Choppington station on the line between Bedlington, Morpeth, and Pegswood has only just launched in the last few days; but has already attracted 17 signatures of support.
Choppington station would have a strong case for reopening now; having closed to regular services in 1950, and fully closing in 1964. Since that time, however, housing stock in surrounding towns nearby has grown significantly, with ongoing developments in Bedlington and Scotland Gate only bringing greater population density to the area and better justification for the station to reopen.
Reopening Choppington Station would open up the opportunity for someone living in Scotland Gate to travel to Scotland, hence the title of this blog post.
More widely, the three petitions combined are part of an overall improvement in public transport in Northumberland; the N.C.L. rail route provides a stronger spine of rail services along the Northumberland Coast, giving fast, direct, and comfortable connections from Berwick to Blyth and into North Tyneside. Buses linking Alnwick and Amble into Alnmouth can be used by all rail users, not just those on the N.C.L., and makes car-free tourism far more viable as an option, and finally a new station at Choppington would better serve communities such as the ‘top end’ of Bedlington, Choppington, Scotland Gate, Guide Post, and Stakeford.
The Northumberland Coast Loop