The Northumberland Line

Welcome to the Railfuture page devoted to the Northumberland Line between Ashington, Northumberland, and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Formerly the 'Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Line' campaign.

Introduction

SERVICES BEGIN ON THE NORTHUMBERLAND LINE

On Sunday 15th December, the latest railway to reopen to passenger traffic in the UK welcomed the public aboard the first services. At this stage, only the new stations at Ashington, and at Seaton Delaval have opened; with Newsham station near Blyth due to open in around February/March 2025, and Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, and Northumberland Park (in North Tyneside and offering interchange with Tyne and Wear Metro) due to open on as yet unspecified dates later in 2025.

There have been many campaigns throughout the United Kingdom to reopen railway lines to passenger traffic. They all take a lot of work and time if they are to be successful, and examples of success are limited. The North East now has its own example of a successful campaign in the form of the South East Northumberland Rail Users Group (SENRUG) campaign to bring passenger services back to the line from Newcastle to Ashington. 

The original Blyth and Tyne railway was a network of lines and branches originally built to move coal from the collieries of South East Northumberland to the various ports on the Blyth & Tyne rivers. Passenger services between Newcastle and Ashington were withdrawn in November 1964.

The Line Today

The route leaves the East Coast Main Line at Benton Junction, north of Newcastle. Between Benton Junction and Newsham, the line is largely single track, running alongside the Tyne & Wear Metro until Northumberland Park Metro Station, where it turns north towards Newsham. From Backworth, a section of newly laid double track forms a long loop, dropping back to single line through Seghill and Seaton Delaval, before finally becoming consistently double track from New Hartley, through Newsham, Blyth Bebside, and Bedlington to Ashington, then through Woodhorn and on to its terminus at Lynemouth power station.
A single track section also connects Bedlington back to the East Coast Main Line at Morpeth.

Since closure to passengers the line has been kept alive by freight traffic – historically mostly coal traffic, but currently is in the form of biomass between Tyne Dock and Lynemouth Power Station and, imported through the Port of Blyth, alumina to Fort William.

The north side of the Port of Blyth is accessible from both the south, via West Sleekburn Junction, and from the north via Marchey's House junction just to the south of Ashington

Overview of the stations on the Northumberland Line.

The Northumberland Line project will see six new/reopened stations built once completed, at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth Bebside, Newsham, Seaton Delaval, and finally Northumberland Park. Manors, as an existing station, is served by some Northumberland Line trains en-route to Newcastle Central Station.

At Ashington, whilst the original through platforms still remain in place, a new single track bay platform has been constructed in the former goods yard, allowing for a four car multiple unit (Typically 2x Class 158/156) to stop clear of the mainline to allow passing biomass trains bound for Lynemouth Power Station to pass by. The existing car park at the site has been remodelled and expanded, as well as the provision of cycle storage near to the platform. This station opened to the public on Sunday 15th December 2024.

At Bedlington, one of the station buildings has been demolished, the other being retained for future community use, with the existing single platform now totally removed due to realignment of track, and to allow the construction of a second platform on the south side of the line (never existed before due to colliery sidings branching off here pre-1964. As of December 2024, Bedlington station has not yet got platforms, and is due to open later in 2025.

Blyth Bebside station is on a totally new site, slightly to the south of the original Bebside station, with a large car park being built adjacent, and also a new footbridge to link the station to the ADSA Blyth/Horton Park area over the A189 Spine Road. This station is well underway, with work progressing well. This station is due to open later in 2025.

Newsham station is again on a new site, located south of the original Newsham station, that was located at a now long closed junction serving central Blyth, the south staiths, harbour area and Bates Colliery/Coal Loaders. This station has been built to the south of the former A1061 South Newsham Road, the level crossing there closing after construction and opening of a new flyover to take the re-routed A1061 over the Northumberland Line. New car parks are being built either side of the line, and the station is expected to be the next to open early in 2025.

Seaton Delaval station is located on a single track section of line, again slightly south of the original Seaton Delaval, with a new car park provided for rail users. This station opened alongside Ashington on Sunday 15th December 2024.

Northumberland Park station is located adjacent to the Tyne and Wear Metro station of the same name, and is intended as an interchange between the Northumberland Line and the T&W Metro system. This station is still under construction, and is due to open later in 2025.

Why should the line be re-opened?

The business case for re-opening the line is based on the re-invigoration of Ashington and other communities in South East Northumberland.
The line runs through a major part of the former Northumberland Coalfield and will serve several communities that experience multiple deprivation and have high levels of unemployment and/or dependence on benefits.
There is all party agreement on the benefits that the re-opening will bring in terms supporting economic growth, regeneration and community development in Northumberland and the surrounding regions by providing new and improved transport links for local people and businesses. The new service will improve access from towns such as Ashington and Blyth to employment hubs like Newcastle, as well as opening up new opportunities for leisure, education and travel. The new service will offer a seamless transfer onto Tyne and Wear Metro at Northumberland Park. It will also provide a real incentive for potential employers to relocate to and invest in the local area. It will also help to encourage people out of their cars and onto cleaner, more sustainable forms of transport
Whilst most households now have access to a car, there remain many 1 car households where 2 or more people are seeking work. In particular many young people cannot afford to run their own car and so are dependent on good public transport to find jobs.
Good public transport and access to work also creates inward investment. People who already have a job but looking to set up home will find places such as Ashington, Bedlington and Blyth more attractive as they can get to their place of work easily. Such people will support local businesses, creating further employment in the area.
The re-opened line will also give access to the wider rail network making it easier to reach places such as York, Leeds, Birmingham, and London. This makes the communities served by the line more attractive locations for businesses, plus giving access to a wider range of jobs in locations such as Sunderland or Durham.
The new passenger service will also support further housing development, reduce traffic congestion on the A189 Spine Road / A19 corridor, and help achieve CO2 emission reduction targets.

The Campaign

In July 2004 SENRUG launched their campaign and in December 2005 were supported by local MPs through an Early Day Motion. In January 2007 the North East Assembly commissioned a report into the proposed phased re-opening of the line.  The proposal reached Parliament again in May 2007 when SENRUG organised an online petition to 10 Downing Street which attracts over 1,000 signatures and prompts an Adjournment Debate. May 2008 saw a GRIP 4 Study launched. It was to be paid for by a freight operator but was cancelled when the freight operator’s requirements changed.

In June 2008 SENRUG organised a charter train which made 3 trips round the line as far as Ashington. One of the trips is reserved exclusively for stakeholders, politicians and the press.

In March 2009 Geoff Hoon (Secretary of State for Transport) toured the scheme and SENRUG presented the case for the re-opening to him. By June 2009 ATOC had expressed support in their “Connecting Communities” report. 

March 2010 saw SENRUG organising a “hustings” meeting prior to General Election and all 3 parliamentary candidates promise to support the scheme and in November 2010 the scheme was included in Northumberland County Council’s Local Transport Plan

June 2013 saw Northumberland County Council launch the GRIP 1 Study with Network Rail.  GRIP 2 followed in October 2015 followed by GRIP 3 in the following year when Northumberland County Council set out an ambitious timescale that would have seen trains running by early 2021.  

Campaigns involve a lot of work over a long period of time. As well as meeting with the people who have the power to make decisions SENRUG didn’t forget the power of the community. In April 2014 they organised a schools competition to commemorate 50th anniversary of closure They asked schools to create a 5-8 minute video setting out the business case for re-opening the line. The winning team from Hirst Park Middle School were taken to Westminster to present their video to their MP. You can watch their video here. The competition provided a great educational experience for the schools and generated significant positive media coverage whist helping to build the support in the local communities.

Campaigning continued and in Feb 2019 Chris Grayling (Transport Secretary) paid a visit to the area and spoke encouragingly about the project and the campaign, September 2019 saw Northumberland County Council (NCC) run a public consultation on their proposals for what they now called 'The Northumberland line' and in October 2019 the line was included in DfT's new Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline and we saw the start of design and development work. £1.5m came from government to support development of Northumberland line project and in May 2020 Northumberland County Council committed a further£10m to the project, and we began to see boots on the ground as survey work and ground investigations began. The draft of the North East Transport Plan indicated regional support for the plan and ideas for the use of the line now appear in other places including the Network Rail Traction Decarbonisation plan – a plan that suggests the need to look, in the longer term, at electrification of the new line.

January 2021 saw Government committing a further £34m to allow for land acquisition, completion of detailed design, and for Network Rail to commence early works prior to relevant planning approvals.

In another innovation the project will use the principle of land value capture as a source of funding. There is little doubt that the value of land and property is increased when new public transport infrastructure is built, and the idea of funding transport infrastructure by ‘capturing’ a share of these increased values isn’t entirely new but has always been seen as difficult to achieve in practice. However, Edinburgh Rail (better known as E-Rail), commissioned by Northumberland County Council, have developed a method of doing so. Twenty one development sites that might see a significant increase in value as a result of the investment in the railway have been identified and negotiations with the owners are ongoing. Whilst details are not as yet in the public domain there are reports that substantial sums will be raised once the developments actually take place. It will be interesting to see how this new source of funding for projects progresses in the longer term.

December 2024: On Sunday 15th, the Northumberland Line was officially opened to the public, a little over 60 years since the last regular passenger trains ran. This was only a partial reopening with only Ashington, and Seaton Delaval stations opened so far, but the remainder are due to be opened during 2025.

What do we get for the money?

As well new stations at Northumberland Park, Seaton Delaval, Newsham, Blyth Bebside, Bedlington and Ashington the Northumberland Line will also see 18 miles of track upgraded with several new crossings, passing loops, and bridges. As of December 2024, the cost of the Northumberland Line has been reported as £298.5m.

Northern, who will operate the service and have already appointed a project manager, expect to offer two trains per hour on weekdays and Saturdays between 6am and 7.30pm, with an hourly service after 7.30pm and on Sundays. The journey time between Ashington and Newcastle should be around 35 minutes.

If you’ve enjoyed reading the above, why not consider joining Railfuture. You can do so at https://www.railfuture.org.uk/join/. When you log in to the Railfuture home page you will see a whole range of information about our work and, from this page, you can link to the North East Branch for details of local activities and campaigns.

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