The Northumberland Coast Loop is my proposal to see passenger services introduced between Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Berwick-Upon-Tweed via Bedlington, Northumberland.
This route, starting at the Newcastle end, would share the route of the soon to open Northumberland Line (NL) as far as Bedlington, before heading north-west to join the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at Morpeth North Junction, and continuing northwards via Pegswood Station towards Berwick (and possibly beyond). The route would use, and build upon existing, working routes as they stand in 2023.
As an initial starting phase, I would propose a service of four local services (calling at all stops) and four semi-fast services (calling at limited stops (shown on map above with black ring)) in each direction, giving a total of eight services in each direction per day, a total of sixteen services per day.
These services would have a wide spread throughout the day, known as ‘service span’, with a likely range of 06:00 (6am) to 22:00 (10pm).
These services would give a service frequency of around 4-5 hours between trains in each direction, which would serve both the ‘short-trip’ for shopping, appointments or leisure activities, whilst also serving those travelling to work by having a wide range of services for those who start early/finish late in evening.
Semi-fast services, especially those travelling Edinburgh – Newcastle and beyond running via the Bedlington route could help promote use of rail to access more distant places by offering ‘single seat’ rides from SE Northumberland to places like Edinburgh, York, London and more. The slower route for through passengers would be compensated by generally lower ticket prices (esp if taken up by an open access operator), and but for locals/visitors to SE Northumberland, it would offer the convenience of near door-to-door travel.
A suggested implementation date for services could be as early as December 2025; the Northumberland Line, though delayed is due to open by end of 2024, so this would allow for a year of services ‘bedding in’ and any faults/issues resolved. As stated earlier the route is otherwise already in place, and should take a minimal amount of work to implement using existing rolling stock (diesel or bi-mode/tri-mode units).
Why the Northumberland Coast Loop?
In short, it fills a missing link.
At time of writing, the only north-south route open to passengers in Northumberland is the East Coast Main Line (ECML), which primarily has semi-fast (limited stop) services calling at Berwick, Alnmouth (for Alnwick) and Morpeth. The difficulty here is the travel from towns such as Bedlington, Blyth etc to particularly Morpeth Station, which is served by comparatively few buses and due to winding routes offer slow connections; frok the Clayton Arms to Morpeth Station takes 28mins according to Google Maps (see image below, taken on Friday 5th Jan 2024).
Local services do also serve the line; an approximately hourly service runs from Newcastle as far as Morpeth (serving Cramlington additionally), and a longer distance morning and evening local train running from Newcastle to Chathill, which doesn’t even call at some smaller stations heading north in the morning.
The main campaign for the ECML in Northumberland is for an hourly local train service (see here) . This has been proven possible if electric trains replace currently diesels, but there has been little news on potential timescales for this being implemented.
Next up is the long-awaited Northumberland Line, which will reconnect Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth (via Bebside and Newsham Stations), Seaton Delaval and Northumberland Park to Newcastle Central Station, which will return rail services lost since November 1964. This area is the most heavily populated in the whole of Northumberland, home to most of the largest towns and located some miles east of the ECML.
A third service proposal is to extend the aforementioned Newcastle to Morpeth service to Bedlington once the station reopens. This would make use of ‘idle time’ in the sidings at Morpeth to give some connection east-west at the northern end of the Northumberland Line.
In my view, both the Northumberland Line and Newcastle – Bedlington via Morpeth service are excellent additions, but could be said to be ‘south facing’ as they offer great connections into Newcastle, but travel northwards involves at least one, perhaps two changes of train.
To illustrate this, a person at Bebside or Newsham station wishing to travel to Berwick or Edinburgh would either need to travel into Newcastle and change train once, or they could travel to Morpeth, but that would mean a need to change at Bedlington, and then again at Morpeth to catch a northbound service.
This extra travel in the ‘wrong’ direction, time required for changing trains, and relative inconvenience makes rail travel less competitive with other modes of travel, particularly the private car, and with other modes of public transport such as buses being extremely, almost painfully slow given the distances needing to be covered, direct rail connections might be the best option.
Fortunately, the arrangement of lines in the area would allow for such a direct service or services to exist, and could, potentially, be quickly implemented at fairly low cost.
Adding this fourth option of Northumberland Coast Loop services would fix the missing link between SE Northumberland and North Northumberland/Scotland.
The route above has been based upon the existing track layout being used to provide a service linking as many places as possible while not requiring complex operational moves such as reversals.
Who would use the N.C.L.?
A link such as this would have multiple purposes, from travelling to/from work, accessing education or training, shopping or leisure activities such as days out, cycling trips and much more.
For example, the area around Port of Blyth is being developed as a major renewable energy and advanced manufacturing area under the multi-million pound ‘Energising Blyth’ programme, with significant opportunities for employment in the Blyth Valley area.
Conversely, there are many seasonable jobs in North Northumberland at tourist attractions and in hospitality that may be attractive to younger people living in SE Northumberland who would be unlikely to relocate for such work, and may lack access to a car, so a better public transport link would make this much more viable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the route not call at Morpeth?
Unfortunately, the existing track layout would make serving Morpeth challenging – one suggestion from feedback on Social Media has been to run into the existing platforms at Morpeth and ‘reverse’ the train (driver changing ends and driving opposite direction), so Bedlington – Morpeth – Pegswood or vice versa.
Doing this at Morpeth Station as it stands is unlikely as changing ends could take several minutes, and being a busy mainline station is unlikely to get approval to do so. It would also add significant amounts of time to the route.
A further suggestion made by others, is to rebuild the bay platform at Morpeth on the south side of the station, and have access to both the line towards Bedlington as well as the ECML heading north – a welcome suggestion and one which I would support, but it is a longer term prospect, which if/when developed could allow the route to be altered at that time but establishing the service first, running directly between Pegswood and Bedlington would be the priority.
The Morpeth Bay would most likely be a terminus for trains to/from the east (Bedlington) arriving into Morpeth and heading back in the same direction again (such as ‘Metro to Morpeth’), and offer an interchange with other services on the mainline.
This latter suggestion is much more acceptable for the ‘reversal at Morpeth’ proposal as it would then happen off the mainline and thus not unduly effect passing services BUT would need significant investment of several millions of pounds to rebuild the bay, as well as alter signalling and trackwork at Morpeth to accomodate these movements.
One other issue with this would be the potential constraints on train length – local trains are likely to be around 4 carriages long, and so shouldn’t pose any major issues, but semi-fast trains may be of greater length which may preclude their use of the bay as they’d be too long to use it.
A solution to serving Morpeth could be a new platform on the Morpeth North Curve itself, which could be called ‘Stobhill (for Morpeth)’ and would probably be best placed adjacent to the A196 near to Hepscott Care Centre. A platform here could be relatively simple, just a single platform against the current single track. This would avoid the need to awkwardly reverse trains at Morpeth station either on the mainline or in a rebuilt bay, while still being an easily accessible location (good existing bus interchange with nearby stops, and ample land for development of car parking if required).
In my view, Morpeth is served well enough by the many other services on the mainline that call there already, and the proposals for an hourly local service between Berwick and Newcastle would outweigh the need for local Northumberland Coast Loop services to call there. My suggestion would be that the Newcastle to Bedlington via Morpeth service should seek extension beyond Bedlington to Bebside or Newsham as soon as practicable (though this is likely to need investment in some form of turnback facility) to give a Blyth to Morpeth direct link.
In the very immediate term, a stop at Pegswood would, in my view, serve Morpeth quite reasonably – it is only 4.9km/3mi from Morpeth Town Hall, is well connected by footpaths & cycle routes into Morpeth and is well connected by bus, with ample opportunity to also add car parking at Pegswood to the west of the fire station directly accessed from the A197 (Pegswood Parkway).
Why doesn’t the service call at Ashington?
Similarly to Morpeth, the service wouldn’t be able to serve Ashington due to the current track layout, but would be even more awkward in many respects as in each direction would mean a reversal at Ashington as well as one at Bedlington.
This would also add many minutes to journey times (probably around 20mins), which would reduce the competitiveness of the service.
Again, a long term aim is to create a new route between Ashington and Widdrington using part of the ‘Butterwell Line’ through Ashington Community Woods as far as Linton Colliery, and a new section of line beyond Linton Colliery to join the mainline somewhere south of Widdrington Station, which would then put Ashington onto a through route.
While putting Ashington on a direct route would make it an obvious candidate to then get direct services, a direct link between Ashington and Widdrington will be an expensive project; it will involve a few miles of new railway (existing sections if reused would still need heavy upgrades of track) and would require the creation of a completely new junction with the ECML south of Widdrington, as well as rebuilding the one at Ashington (challenging with the constrained site and being on a curve).
In addition, it would be a fairly easy option for those travelling from Ashington, and in the future Woodhorn and Newbiggin, to travel to Bedlington or Bebside to make connections there too as an alternative to travelling to Pegswood or Morpeth.
The loop, by contrast makes use of an existing route and junctions that are in regular use by freight, and upgrading the capacity of this line by building passing loops or double-tracking could be more cost-effective.
The Northumberland Coast Loop, in my view would represent a fair compromise for Ashington, with Pegswood Station only a short distance away (only 5km/3.1miles), already well connected by a footpath and cycle route alongside the A197, as well as regular buses, and again opportunity to develop the ‘Pegswood Parkway’.
Ryan Hogg 