It has often been discussed that the hopefully soon to be reopened Northumberland Line between Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Ashington doesn’t really serve ‘Blyth’; instead two stations at Bebside and Newsham, on the outskirts of town will serve it instead.
As an initial step to returning rail services, I feel this is a very pragmatic and lower risk strategy; you’re simply building platforms next to an existing line rather than relaying or building new track into a very built up town.
Much of the original route has been built upon, particularly on the old station site (now home to a Morrisons supermarket), with the surviving route having a level crossing over Plessey Road to rebuild and a low bridge over Princess Louise Road near Blyth Sport Centre. These are issues; even a low bridge, while better than a level crossing would present potential issues with traffic limitations for road vehicles and carries the ever present risk of a bridge strike.
Personally, I don’t think it would be a really viable option, let alone how you’d operate such a route. Would it be a shuttle service akin to Stourbridge? Would trains run through to elsewhere on the Northumberland Line or indeed be an extension to the Tyne and Wear Metro (TWM), running through to South Hylton or South Shields?
A shuttle service holds the advantage that being independent of the other routes, it can run to its own timetable with its own train captive on the route; the Stourbridge Shuttle for example uses tiny Class 139 people movers movers on a high frequency to provide a well patronised service. The disadvantages are lack of direct trips, a shuttle would likely be Blyth TC – Newsham, so all passengers would change at Newsham for onward journeys.
In comparison, a direct train offers direct services to at least a few destinations and more interchange options. Lets say a TWM Blyth – South Hylton route was possible, you’d gain direct connections to all the Metro stations on the Yellow Line between N’land Park and South Gosforth, then the core TWM route of both Green and Yellow between South Gosforth and Pelaw, then the rest of Green route to South Hylton as stands today.
Electrification Note
As many may be aware, the Tyne and Wear Metro uses 1500v DC overhead electrification, whereas mainline railways uses 25kv AC electrification. I feel that to be most effective, the 25kv AC standard should be used on Northumberland Line as and when it is electrified (with frequent services alongside freight I feel it should be). To cover this difference, dual voltage Metro trains or ones with battery power may need to be employed on through running beyond current Metro network.
However, direct trains would be beholden to the ‘mainline’ tinetable, meaning you’d likely have lower frequencies.
So given the challenges, I would argue that a shuttle is of limited value to drive into Blyth, and even if offering direct trains a branch into Blyth would use capacity that might be better deployed elsewhere.
To better deploy that capacity, I would suggest a the Dartmouth solution. In a nutshell, Dartmouth Railway Station was NEVER served by trains (despite several attempts), however, just over the water in Kingswear, a station was connected by ferry. Integrated tickets being sold for ferry & onward train travel.
To me, a similar solution could be applied to Blyth, using the existing branchline serving the alumina dock, and a short ferry trip across the Port of Blyth. No new track needed in a dense urban area (expensive), just a small station, and a fairly small passenger/cycle ferry, relatively inexpensive.
Then you have the route such a train would take, you then would add further coverage by a say direct Cambois – South Hylton route by also taking taking in Bedlington and Bebside stations, as well as potentially a new station near the proposed BritishVolt plant, serving the potentially sizeable workforce.
For the time being, Bebside and Newsham can serve Blyth fairly well, but I would strongly suggest that a Cambois Station and ferry be considered; walking distances, taking Commissioners Quay Inn as starting point are as follows (Bebside Inn used for Bebside Station)
For those on foot wishing to access a station, those about 20-30 mins walking radius from Blyth Quayside could be at an advantage crossing the river and boarding at Cambois as opposed to Bebside or Newsham, as well as a ferry link also being of wider benefjt to those travelling longer distances down the Northumberland Coast (National Cycle Network Route 1 currently goes via Kitty Brewster Bridge for example).
Just my own thoughts.
Ryan Hogg 