Northumberland Loop Line: Edinburgh to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne via Pegswood, Bebside for Blyth, & Northumberland Park?

At time of writing (mid February 2023), work is progressing well on the Northumberland Line between Ashington, Northumberland and Newcastle Upon Tyne, with intermediate stations at Bedlington, Bebside (for Blyth), Newsham, Seaton Delaval and Northumberland Park (interchange with Tyne & Wear Metro).

Plans at present are for a simple local train service running half hourly between Ashington and Newcastle calling at all stations – a MASSIVE step forward for the area and much welcomed by an overwhelming majority of locals who’ve backed a long running campaign to see passenger trains return.

For the future, the obvious next steps are extensions to Newbiggin By The Sea via Woodhorn, as well as local services to/from Morpeth, but I think there is an argument to be made in favour of a few longer distance services running via this revived passenger route rather than 100% via the east coast mainline (ECML)

All via ECML

Currently, all long distance trains between Edinburgh, Newcastle and beyond run wholly on the ECML, broadly speaking skirting around the urban area of south east Northumberland.

As can be seen from above image, the ECML runs to the west of the major urban centres of SE Northumberland. From a population perspective, Morpeth gets a disproportionate level of service to its size – being the 5th largest town in Northumberland and well eclipsed by both Blyth, Cramlington, Ashington and Bedlington as can be seen from 2011 Census results below, with Bedlington being home to 4000 more people than Morpeth in 2011.

Changing trains vs direct services

While changing trains is sometimes unavoidable and direct trains cannot be provided for every trip, there is some scope and benefit in provision of some long distance trains on this route which I’ll outline below.

The Northumberland Loop via Blyth

Northbound connectivity

The Northumberland Line is essentially a suburban rail route in/out of Newcastle – that’s not a complaint but as it stands, connections northward by rail would be via Newcastle, which does add time to overall trips both via increased distance and time lost in changing trains.

This could be mitigated by better rail connectivity from Morpeth headed east – options for this are covered here: Northumberland Line 2.0 which covers the options of either extending Newcastle – Cramlington – Morpeth trains on to Bedlington or to reconstruct Morpeth Bay platform and run a dividing train from Newcastle to Bebside/Bedlington (Bedlington may have length constraints due to junction and level crossings, Bebside should be less constrained) or indeed both options complementing one another, however from origins or to destinations north, this would still mean a change of train at Morpeth.

Yet – an option already exists to either divert some existing long distance services or to create new ones which would give options for ‘single seat rides’ direct to many more cities and major centres without huge capital outlay – no new stations, no new junctions, no new alignments and maybe even very little by way of signalling alterations.

The Route – An existing loop via Blyth & Northumberland Park

While a little hard to see on the map above, a loop in the ECML exists, from Pegswood headed southwards, the line branches off just north of Morpeth Station and heads east-south-east towards Bedlington, then turns south over the River Blyth, through soon to reopen Bebside, continuing through Newsham then alternating between south and west through Seaton Delaval & Northumberland Park to then rejoin the ECML at Benton Junction and on into Newcastle.

While this route isn’t often traversed by many passenger trains (although it is a recognised diversionary route and has been used as such for many decades, so precedent for running mainline services via this route has long been set, just not regular timetabled services.

Pegswood Parkway – (For Ashington & Morpeth)

Its covered in greater depth in this piece on Pegswood Parkway, which would see the existing station enhanced by the simple addition of a large car park to the west of Pegswood Fire Station, accessed directly from the A197 Pegswood Bypass, itself a connector road between A697, A1 and A1068.

With public transport Pegswood station is fairly well connected already by the Arriva 35 service between Morpeth bus station and Newbiggin, and this bus runs at 20minute intervals throughout the day, as well as a National Cycle Network route linking Morpeth and Ashington via Pegswood too. Much room to improve local trains at Pegswood also exists too, but development as a regionally/nationally linked ‘hub’ station would only enhance this.

Again in terms of rail infrastructure, Pegswood Station would need little investment to take on this role, a footbridge/lifts at western end might be of benefit to make connection to/from proposed car park easier, but is a relatively simple and low cost measure in grander scheme of rail projects. It obviously shouldn’t be a prerequiste for Pegswood to become a Parkway before such a service is started but getting the ball rolling now would certainly help.

Morpeth North Curve

While being proposed since the late 19th Century, the direct north to east curve at Morpeth wasn’t built and opened until 1980 – missing the end of passenger services on the former Blyth and Tyne lines by 16 years.

While this curve unfortunately does mean Morpeth being bypassed by services on the proposed route, the convenient location of Pegswood Station arguably provides a suitable alternative stop, serving not only Morpeth but happily also being well placed to serve Ashington too.

It’s interesting to speculate that had this route existed earlier, would passenger services on this route have begun, and maybe have survived postwar passenger route closures with the survival of a few stations such as Bedlington, Bebside and Newsham?

Morpeth to Bedlington

This section is mostly a lightly used single track line without any stations currently. While these proposal wouldn’t argue to build the long proposed Choppington Station, it would potentially be another useful stop en-route – as it would serve the large communities of West Bedlington and Guide Post/Choppington better than either Pegswood or Bebside being on both major existing bus routes, as well as convenient range for active travel routes.

The last known passenger carrying trip via this route at time of writing was the ‘Bound for Craigy’ railtour of 18th March 2017, pictured below on the line between Bedlington and Morpeth.

As this proposal is only calling for a handful of services per day to potentially run via this route, and existing traffic already being quite low there is no proposal to double track this route at least initially – if future demands exceed present capacity then expansion could be deferred until later.

Bedlington Station

Unfortunately, the station in Bedlington Station (Bedlington Station Station?!?) likely would have to be omitted – it is likely to be quite constrained in platform length, being sandwiched between a junction and a level crossing. In addition, as service would likely be a semi-fast making fewer stops, Bedlington would probably be omitted in favour of Bebside.

Bebside for Blyth (and more)

While perhaps given away in the title of the post, Bebside is probably sited brilliantly for the purpose of a hub station and even better in many ways than Pegswood.

Bebside Station sits almost adjacent to the junction of the A189 Spine Road and A193 linking Bedlington, Blyth and Cramlington; it’s in an excellent location to intercept both public transport and drivers alike as the major northern route in/out of Blyth is via Cowpen (Coop-n) Road – buses such as the X9 Max link Blyth and Cramlington via Bebside station.

Active travel routes are also well developed – the National Cycle Network Route 1 runs parallel to A189 here, as well as minor roads like Bebside Furnace Road and Hathery Lane providing active travel routes to/from Bedlington and Cramlington respectively (small enhancements could improve these routes in time).

Again Bebside could almost be deserving of Parkway status, being mostly edge of town and potential to link directly to A189 and avoid some traffic entering Bebside itself.

Its also well sited to serve the large industrial area along both sides of the River Blyth and into Port of Blyth, and the vast Nelson Park industrial estate, enhancing the rail connectivity of these two large industrial sites to other regional and national centres if services ran via Blyth – Cramlington Station is much more constrained and bringing vehicle traffic in form of taxis and cars into town centres isn’t ideal as a concept.

Cramlington should of course have its own pattern of long distance trains calling, as well as local trains but being on the ECML is actually constraint on this – services via Blyth would benefit from making additional stops as then they would run more favourably with local stopping trains by having a similar running pattern over express trains simply hammering through the likes of Cramlington.

Newsham and Seaton Delaval

Again similarly to Bedlington, there would be little advantage in serving these stations with long distance trains, both are much more residential in nature and missing these stops would allow longer dwell times at other stations for boarding and alighting.

Northumberland Park for North Tyneside & Amsterdam

The second ‘Northumberland Loop’ station would be at Northumberland Park, again another station already being delivered as part of the Northumberland Line scheme now so no investment required to run the proposed service here.

While significantly shortening connection times to places such as Whitley Bay and Tynemouth on the Coast loop of the Tyne and Wear Metro, it would also offer the benefit of a more direct service to the significant employment centres surrounding the nearby A19 which contains Cobalt, Silverlink, Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate and Royal Quays – the latter area also containing both the Amsterdam ferry connection as well as the Tyne Cruise terminal.

On this latter point, transfers from Ferry/Cruise terminal to Northumberland Park would be a much simpler and faster trip by taxi (~17min) compared to Central Station (~31mins) [Via Google Maps 16:42 on 14.2.23] – again proposals to expand the Metro network, providing a Percy Main to Northumberland Park direct link would only enhance this connection.

A significant market (anecdotal evidence) for attractions such as Alnwick Castle and The Alnwick Garden is cruise passengers and holiday makers coming via ferry from continental europe – why not transfer them in greater comfort and speed via rail from Northumberland Park to stations such as Alnmouth on just one train?

In reverse, foot passengers wishing to connect with the Ferry would have a much easier and shorter transfer if longer distance services called at Northumberland Park.

Potential Operators

While it would be at the discretion of individual operators to propose running such a route, one operator who might be an ‘ideal fit’ could be Grand Central – extending Kings Cross to Sunderland services through to Newcastle then via Blyth to Edinburgh which would allow numerous direct journeys to be made – Edinburgh to Sunderland as just one example, but also offering single seat rides between SE Northumberland and Wearside/Teesside.

North Sea Coast Service (A1 & A19 Corridor)

There is a notable lack of any single seat trips serving the North East coast from the Scottish Border to Teesside – despite both of these areas having so much in common, both being former coalfield areas and now transitioning to renewable energy sector.

Such a service as outlined above broadly mirrors the A1 & A19 Corridor – paralleling the A1 on the Edinburgh to Pegswood stretch, then the Morpeth – Blyth – Northumberland Park section mirroring the northern part of the A19. Due to lack of lower Tyne rail crossing the route has to run west to cross the Tyne in central Newcastle, before running back east on the south bank of the Tyne to rejoin the A19 corridor through Wearside, on to Teesside and then on to York.

In addition, York is a key interchange point on the national rail network – direct trains from Pegswood, Bebside (for Blyth) and Northumberland Park running into York for transfers would again be a massive asset for the local economy and achievable at very low cost – all the infrastructure required is either in place now or is well underway to being delivered as part of the Northumberland Line project – using these assets for a longer distance service in addition to the suburban rail use gives them greater value at little to no additional cost.

What are your thoughts? Please feel welcome to add feedback below: