The Ashington Blyth & Tyne Line closed to passenger traffic some 40 years ago. But it remains fully operational and maintained for freight trains. Additionally, some of the former stations such as Ashington & Bedlington remain virtually in tact. Ashington in particular has a prime town centre location within the pedestrianised shopping centre, with ramp access to both north and southbound platforms. For a brief history of the line click here.
SENRUG are campaigning for the line to be re-opened permanently for regular passenger trains. Unlike many re-opening campaigns up and down the country, the case for the Ashington Blyth & Tyne line is unique since the lines are already here. All we need is for trains to start running on them again.
Why Re-open the line?
- Easier commuting. Access to a wider range of jobs for people who don’t have access to a car. This includes many young people, and those in one-car households where both partners work, or are looking for work.
- Regeneration of Ashington, Bedlington Station and Blyth areas. More people move in to an area if there are good transport links and they can reach the City Centre easily. Such people will spend their money locally, and support local services.
Hasn’t Re-opening Been Tried Before?
Yes! A previous attempt to re-open the line was rapidly dismissed when the former Railtrack priced it at £46 million. SENRUG thinks this figure was significantly over-inflated.
Since then, a similar scheme – The Vale of Glamorgan Line – involving the same length of existing, operational track and the rebuilding of the stations along the route, was recently reopened to passengers for only £17m, which seems a much more reasonable figure.
And a number of the technical problems associated with the earlier attempts to re-open the line have now been resolved or disappeared. This means it is time to seriously look at the case for re-opening again.
Nevertheless, SENRUG has come up with a phased approach meaning the first section of the line could be re-opened for less than £5m
The Phased Approach
We’d love to see the whole line re-opened in one go. At the same time, we’re pragmatic, and SENRUG has come up with a way of opening the line in phases, meaning service could be restored to Bedlington and Ashington in the first instance at very minimal cost.
Our phased approach leaves the most challenging section until last. This is the southern part of the line between Benton Junction and Newsham, where there are a number of sharp bends and level crossings with low speed restrictions. To eliminate these would require significant engineering works.
But our ultimate objective however is to see the whole line re-opened.
Phase 1.
Extend the existing MetroCentre – Newcastle – Cramlington – Morpeth service on to Choppington and Bedlington.
This suggestion was based on the premise that the 15 minutes the train currently waits at Morpeth between arriving there and returning south could be used to send it on to Bedlington and back again.
The North East Assembly supported by other funding partners have already commissioned a technical report into the viability of SENRUG’s proposed phase 1. This has reported the line to Bedlington could be opened for less than £5 million – hardly anything in capital investment terms, and that a service to Bedlington could be timetabled without needing any extra rolling stock
A small annual operating subsidy would be needed. Two options were costed. One is for an hourly service during the daytime only. This would require a subsidy of £50,000 pa. The second is for a half hourly service extending throughout the evening up till midnight. This option also delivers a half-hourly and evening service to from Newcastle to Morpeth and Cramlington, significantly increasing the number of people who will benefit. The subsidy for this option would be £101,000 pa. The funding requirements for each option are very reasonable and are understood to be similar to what it costs to subsidise a bus route.
Council leaders have claimed moving to a single unitary authority for Northumberland will create a saving of £17m every year. So it should easily be possible to fund this rail link.
Phase 2.
As for phase 1, but then extend the train further from Bedlington (by reversing) on to Ashington. This would provide a direct rail service from Ashington to Morpeth, Cramlington, Newcastle and MetroCentre.
Obviously, to continue to Ashington, additional rolling stock would be necessary. But the regeneration benefits of restoring a rail service to Ashington would be significant. The former station sits on a double track section of line. Both the platforms remain virtually in tact with the over-bridge still in existence. The station has a prime town centre location within the pedestrianised shopping area and with large car parks adjacent to it.
Phase 2A
Extend beyond Ashington to a new station at Woodhorn. The line runs alongside the Woodhorn Experience Museum which is a significant tourist attraction in the region, but with insufficient parking and poor public transport links. The site also houses the County Records office. A new station could be built, enabling the museum to be reached by rail. The same station would also serve the Wansbeck General Hospital, across the Main Road on the other side of the tracks – which also doesn’t have enough parking spaces.
If a long platform were built at Woodhorn, the station is likely to attract special steam and diesel charter trains from London and the south, bringing visitors into Northumberland. For the last couple of years there have been a couple of charter trains round the line as far as Bedlington – but these have been unable to stop as there are no stations. So, people have travelled through Northumberland but have not been able to get off the train and spend their money here.
| By Train – If ABT Re-opened (approx) | By Bus | |
|---|---|---|
| Newcastle – The Woodhorn Experience | 42 minutes | No service |
| York – The Woodhorn Experience | 1 hour 42 minutes | No service |
Phase 3
This would be full opening of the line, with a service from MetroCentre through Newcastle, Northumberland Park* [Metro interchange], Seghill, Seaton Delaval, Newsham for Blyth, Bebside, Bedlington to Ashington, and possibly Woodhorn.
*it may be easier for technical reasons to have the Metro interchange at Palmersville station, as here the ABT line runs alongside the existing Metro platform.
This would provide faster journey times to Newcastle from Bedlington, Ashington and Woodhorn, as well as serving Blyth through stations at Bebside and Newsham, and provide an additional Metro Interchange at Northumberland Park or Palmersville for The Coast, Gosforth & Jesmond.
The recent study commissioned by NEXUS confirmed the line is capable of carrying an hourly passenger train each way in addition to the current freight movements, and not withstanding the current single track sections.
Opening the southern section of the line from Benton Junction would allow trains to run on the two interconnecting parts of the Ashington Blyth & Tyne line:
- MetroCentre – Newcastle – Manors – Northumberland Park (Metro interchange) – Seghill – Seaton Delaval – Newsham – Bebside – Bedlington – Ashington – Woodhorn
- MetroCentre – Newcastle – Manors – Cramlington – Morpeth – Choppington – Bedlington
Future Possibilities
Extending the line further, beyond Woodhorn to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea would only require a short section of track to be re-laid. The track bed remains in place. Putting Newbiggin back on the rail map would provide significant assistance to current efforts to regenerate the area.
Newbiggin’s already got its sand back, and restoring the rail link as well would promote leisure travel to the area, as well as opening up more job opportunities for people living in Newbiggin
Opening the private coal line from Ashington via Linton to Butterwell (near Stobswood) would allow additional trains between Alnmouth, Widdrington and Newcastle via Ashington and Bedlington without taking space on the East Coast Main Line between Butterwell and Benton Junction. This would be important if the Blue Sky leisure and housing development near Widdrington Station moves forward.
Other Uses For The ABT
On February 6th 2006, the GNER London – Aberdeen High Speed Train was unable to proceed beyond Newcastle as the line was closed at Cramlington, due to an incident there. However, instead of the usual bus replacement service, the train proceeded round the ABT through Newsham, Bedlington and Choppington, re-joining the main line north of Morpeth.
This is further proof the line can carry passenger trains. In addition to providing a local service, it can also be used as a diversionary route during closures and engineering works. Evidence from rail passengers is that they prefer to stay on the train and take an alternative route, rather than have to change on to replacement busses.
What’s Been Happening In Parliament?
Over the last few years there has been plenty of activity to promote the campaign to re-open the line at Westminster.
- Early Day Motion no 1248 on 13th December 2005 and signed by all the regions MPs called for the line to be re-opened.
- Adjournment Debate on 10th January 2007 put the case for re-opening the line.
- Meeting With Rail Minister on 18th July 2007. SENRUG Chairman Dennis Fancett was part of a delegation taken by Denis Murphy MP to discuss the scheme with Rail Minister Tom Harris
- SENRUG’s online petition to 10 Downing Street was signed by 1,292 people. The Petition ran as follows:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to re-introduce passenger rail services on the Ashington Blyth & Tyne line which is a fully maintained mostly double tracked line used by just a few freight trains a day. The line should be used to introduce rail services between Ashington, Bedlington and Newcastle, which would provide considerable regenerative benefits to South East Northumberland. The Prime Minister is urged to take note of the considerable local support for the scheme, as well as the phased re-opening plans put forward by SENRUG which would allow trains to run over the first phase (Morpeth to Bedlington) at virtually no additional operating cost, and that these plans have been acknowledged as viable within the rail industry locally
NB: The Petition is now closed to new signatures..
Getting people to go home, log on and sign a petition is much harder than getting them to sign something on the street. Given this is essentially a local issue, and a number of people don’t even have internet access at home, we think this was a marvellous achievement. The petition ran for 12 months only and is now closed for further signatures
And What Have SENRUG Been Doing?
Much of our time is spent meeting with local councillors, council staff, other statutory authorities and influencers. We believe that since our campaigning began, we have put this issue very much back on the public agenda locally, and we that we now have cross party political support. We also organised the online petition and were delighted when over 1,000 people signed.
We talk extensively about the scheme to the press and achieve good coverage. We have a small exhibition that we take round to libraries and community venues and give talks about the scheme to community groups from time to time.
Our phased approached to the re-opening attracted the interest of The North East Assembly who arranged funding for the first study, as described above.
On two occasions Wansbeck MP Denis Murphy has asked SENRUG representatives to join him at meetings he has held with the Rail Minister to discuss the scheme. Dennis Fancett, SENRUG Chairman was present at the meeting on 18th July 2007 at Westminster, and both Dennis Fancett and John Earl (SENRUG Deputy Chairman) were present on 1st July 2008 at Woodhorn (followed by a tour of Ashington, Bedlington and Morpeth stations). SENRUG gave a short presentation to the Minister on this occasion.
On Saturday 7th June 2008, with sponsorship funding from Wansbeck District Council, SENRUG chartered a special train from Northern Rail to run round the line. The train made 3 trips, each one started at Morpeth, ran down the main line to Newcastle, then back to Benton Junction and on to the ABT line. The train ran through Northumberland Park, Newsham, Bedlington to Ashington where it reversed. Back at Bedlington, it reversed again and proceeded through Choppington and back to Morpeth.
The first trip was reserved for local stakeholders and we were pleased to welcome on board Wansbeck MP Denis Murphy, North East England MEP Fiona Hall, over 40 local authority councillors (from 5 different authorities), numerous staff from these authorities, representatives from North East Assembly, Government Office North East, One North East, SENNTRI, Chamber of Commerce and TUC. Also on board were senior representatives from the rail companies, other local businesses and of course the press.
The second and third trips were open to members of the general public, though all available tickets were sold within days of being released, leaving many disappointed. But the day gave an enormous boost to the campaign, and achieved massive publicity both in the press and on TV.
To find out more about how the trip went, view some photos or video links of the day, click here.
How Can I Help?
We need both local and central government decision makers to know how much support there is for re-opening the line. How Can I Help?
We need both local and central government decision makers to know how much support there is for re-opening the line. Here’s how you can help:
- Write letters to your local MP, your new Northumberland Unitary Authority Councillor, and the Department for Transport (Rail) (www.dft.gov.uk). You may find your MP / Councillor is supportive, but he or she needs to know how many people support him / her in backing this campaign. The website www.writetothem.com will help you contact your elected representatives.
- Join SENRUG – add your voice to ours, so we can speak out more loudly. We’re the South East Northumberland Rail User Group and campaign for better rail services in the area. Annual membership is £5 per adult or couple (£2.50 for unwaged and £10 for corporate). Click on join for more details
A Brief History of The Ashington Blyth & Tyne Line (information kindly supplied by Alan Fendley)
The lines we wish to see re-opened to passenger trains started life as part of the Blyth & Tyne Railway, which was incorporated in 1853. Ashington was originally a branch that was added later.
The Blyth & Tyne was never a single route but a complex network of interconnecting lines built to get coal from the collieries of South East Northumberland to the ports on the rivers Blyth and Tyne. However, Blyth & Tyne managers soon saw the potential for carrying passengers as well, just as we hope those in authority will again today.
The Blyth & Tyne railway was both successful and extremely innovative. It used an integrated system of stationary, semaphore and lamp signalling. Smoking was banned on all its trains, 100 years ahead of its modern day counterparts.
The Blyth & Tyne was incorporated into the North Eastern Railway in 1874 and eventually of course in to British Rail. Prior to our 7th June 2008 charter, the last passenger train to Ashington was 2nd November 1964. The last train to serve Choppington and Hepscott was 3rd April 1950.
