The Northumberland Loop petition started a little under a month ago (5th October 2023) has now gained 150 signatures at time of writing (4th November 2023) showing the potential support for the route to see passenger services introduced. Thank you to all who’ve signed so far!
The ECML isn’t looped but WCML is
The ECML (East Coast Main Line) traditionally is viewed as a mostly singular route between Edinburgh and London, whilst the WCML (West Coast Main Line) has a much more ‘looped’ nature of via X or Y as shown in diagrams below.
A more ‘looped’ ECML could help bring many areas faster rail services connecting locally, regionally and nationally; with the economic uplift these services tend to bring. Running a small number of ECML services (local, regional and perhaps national) would put towns such as Blyth on the national map, encouraging businesses to develop and making use of major investments already made in the Northumberland Line and into the wider area.
Why The Northumberland Loop?
South East Northumberland could benefit strongly from better connectivity to other areas of Northumberland and Scotland, County Durham, Teesside, Yorkshire and beyond. Especially important given the £70m ‘Energising Blyth’ programme. The Blyth Relief Road webpage states:
The town of Blyth plays a key role in the regional economy, with the £70 million ‘Energising Blyth’ programme of investment aimed at making Blyth a thriving UK and international centre of renewable energy and advanced manufacturing growth and innovation. The proposed investment presents a real opportunity to grow the economy of Blyth and the wider area.
To ensure this economic growth becomes reality, it is essential that the links are in place to ensure the safe and efficient movement of people and goods and to facilitate more sustainable transport solutions…’
What could be a better way to capture the UK-wide and international nature of Blyth as a renewable and advanced manufacturing town than direct rail links to cities such as Edinburgh, York, and maybe even London, all done using existing routes and using soon to exist stations?
As a ‘key role’ player in regional economy, surely services via Blyth should be formally proposed?
To quickly re-state why the Northumberland Loop is being proposed and the advantages it could bring:
1. Local, regional and national connectivity:
The route connects the major urban areas of South East Northumberland (Morpeth, Bedlingtonshire (formed of Bedlington, Choppington, Cambois, et al), Blyth and Cramlington and other smaller townships en-route, as well as North Tyneside to North Northumberland and into Scotland directly which is a present missing link even with bus connections, that tend to be very slow and thus unattractive to drive modal shift.
While the Northumberland Line as it stands will be a very welcome improvement by bringing rail connections back to the area via Newcastle, it does mean that travelling to/from the north would mean passing by the area heading south, to then travel back north with consequent additional time needed to do so.
While the proposed Carlisle – Bedlington via Morpeth service extension could help and would be a welcome additional service, it would mean change of train at least once to reach Bedlington, and for any other station, particularly Bebside and Newsham would mean two changes of train to reach via this route, and given the fairly low frequency (approx hourly service) for the link over the Choppington Line (Morpeth & Pegswood to Bedlington), this could mean long waits between trains as a worse case scenario.
A direct local service, on the the other hand could offer a single seat ride from North Northumberland with fastest possible journey times by running directly over existing route from Pegswood to Bedlington (journey time approx 10-15mins) which would also be attractive for those more reluctant to change trains (encumbered travel with luggage, children, dog etc or those less familiar with rail travel generally.
Long-distance services could also make use of this route to serve larger population centres more directly – for example Bebside Station is well positioned to serve the combined populations of Blyth, Cramlington and Bedlington, with good bus connections, a close link to A193 and A189 (which could also serve Ashington and Newbiggin).
This is in comparison to Morpeth Station where traffic in the town tends to be quite heavy and slow moving. Semi-fast operators running via the Northumberland Loop could much more easily accessed Bebside and Northumberland Park stations (interchange with T&W Metro and local buses) and serve populations and major employment areas (Blyth, Cramlington and Cobalt Business Park etc) directly.
Local economy – As stated, better connectivity could help boost the investments already made into Blyth and surrounding towns, but also could have positive effects for the wider Northumberland Coast/Borders area as many living in SE Northumberland/Tyneside travel to North Northumberland for days out in towns such as Alnwick (Alnwick Castle, The Alnwick Garden, Lilidorei, Barter Books etc), Bamburgh, Seahouses and many more all being popular destinations and faster public transport connections will be of benefit for access to these places for those without cars or for ‘car-free’ trips.
2. Economy: Better connectivity generally feeds into increased economic activity – better access to education, employment and training and for businesses a wider pool to draw employees from.
3. Quick to implement but not precluding future rail/public transport improvements:
The route already exists as a working freight line, that is soon to see regular passenger services running on its largest part between Bedlington and Newcastle, with the proposal for Carlisle – Bedlington via Morpeth services virtually completing the loop. The only section that is unplanned presently for regular passenger services is the ‘Morpeth North Curve’, which being built as recently as 1980 has little precedence for passenger services (some limited use during diversions during 1980’s). The Northumberland Loop would see this existing route being better utilised for passenger services.
A future route using the ‘Butterwell Line’ has long been proposed, which would see a broadly new line built from Ashington towards Widdrington on the ECML, the Northumberland Loop could be later diverted onto this alignment if/when built, but in the short term upgrades to Pegswood – Bedlington – Newcastle route to enable and improve passenger services could be done cost-effectively and quickly (already some passenger use for stakeholder trains for example), with redoubling of track likely pretty easy due to mostly agricultural use of land adjacent to railway.
Ryan Hogg 