The Morpeth (Rail) Diversion: Why should we do it?

All thoughts below are my own, and last edit 12:06, 27th June 2021.

The railway route through Morpeth, Northumberland is not an ideal one, with a very sharp curve, especially for a mainline lying just west of Morpeth station itself.

Safety

This curve has been the sight of a number of accidents since its construction, some of which have been fatal and often as the result of ‘overspeed’, where trains have come into the curve too quickly and have derailed.

The Morpeth Curve episode of #RailNatter by Gareth Dennis (Rail Engineer) was inspiration for this post and in my opinion is well worth a watch, although the future of Morpeth to me would be different.

The problem lies in that the railway either side of ‘Morpeth Curve’ is a fast one, being part of the East Coast Mainline (ECML) connecting London & Edinburgh. So the pressure has always been on this route for speed; connecting these and other cities such as Newcastle as quickly as possible.

This tight curve (one of the tightest on the UK mainline network) has a comparatively low speed limit of about 50mph, about half the speed of the line either side, which has been a factor in the accidents mentioned earlier.

25th March 1877 brought the first fatal accident (tragically 5 deaths, 17 injured), and while faulty track caused a derailment at about 25mph, the inspector, Captain Henry Tyler commented: “It would obviously be better if a deviation line could be constructed, to avoid the use of so sharp a curve on a main line.” One hundred and forty-four years later we still haven’t built one?

Coming through history, Captain Tyler certainly had a point:

7th May 1969 the northbound Aberdonian Sleeper derailed at 80mph, with six deaths and 46 injured.

24th June 1984 – Southbound sleeper from Aberdeen derailed, no deaths but 35 injured, speed 85-90mph.

27th June 1994 – 80mph overspeed, one injury.

While modern safety systems and methods of work will hopefully prevent a repetition of such events, accidents can and do happen, so why not avoid the risk to express services altogther and offer a safer, straighter route to and from the north?

Speed

A benefit of a new, faster route avoiding the curve is speed; avoiding the need to slow down, squeak around a tight curve and accelerate away again will surely improve journey times between the English and Scottish capitals via the ECML.

While this may only represent minutes of saving, those minutes along a long distance route add up quickly.

Adding Capacity (More stopping trains & through trains)

An actual benefit for Morpeth would be the option for more services to call there, through trains whizzing by on a new route likely to the east of Morpeth.

Through trains (as at present) take up paths through Morpeth, if these were diverted elsewhere then more trains can stop. All trains calling at Morpeth would also keep speeds through the curve lower, improving safety.

The other benefit is by removing the stopping trains from the path of expresses which would potentially allow more of them to run.

Morpeth as a hub

Morpeth Station could be quite well placed to act as a hub for SE Northumberland. If kept as a ‘loop’ of the mainline, local stopping trains as well as some ‘semi-fast’ InterCity trains could continue to call; this giving connection options particularly to and from Scotland.

Also to consider is east-west, with Carlisle local trains currently terminating at Morpeth, but arguably extending these to Blyth, particularly Newsham, would offer connectivity between many of the largest towns in Northumberland and the Tyne Valley.

The Lyne Triangle

A long-standing proposal by many has been to change the Butterwell Junction near the villages of Ulgham & Longhirst into a triangular junction.

At present a train can only access the Butterwell line from the south, but access directly to and from the north has foreseeable advantages for both passengers and freight; the currently proposed Newcastle-Ashington service could be extended to Amble, a line arguably worth rebuilding in my view.

For freight, a direct connection here would avoid the current reversal at Bedlington for northbound freight from Port of Blyth and opportunity for other freight to travel via this route.

The Diversion

At the northern end, I would propose any diversion to begin north of the ‘Lyne Triangle’ avoiding conflicting moves, as well as a number of level crossings.

Starting on or about the River Lyne would also allow the new route to avoid another station, Pegswood, which again could derive benefit by having more calling services.

A southern junction to rejoin the old ECML would likely be nearby the River Blyth.

Cost

While such a scheme would cost many millions of pounds, especially if complementary schemes such as the Lyne Triangle were done at the same stage to ease planning, financing as part of government debt is actually the easiest part as it would be based upon long term returns from increased productivity, and government debt is totally unlike a personal debt in reality it is an almost unlimited resource.

The real issue will be resources such as engineers and designers to actually deliver the work, so planning this scheme, guaranteeing funding and committing to delivery as early as possible as part of a rolling programme is vital so that skills can be gained and retained.